Two Pairs Of Size 8 Children's Sneakers
by SilentChile
Summary: Nobody ever said the life of an Avenger was easy, but nobody said people were going to be deaged to four either. *Deaged Bruce and now little!Tony too! Warnings inside*
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings: In this chapter- Swearing For the entire work- Children in peril, mentions of child abuse and neglect, kidnapping, swearing, sexual innuendoes, some sexual content, deaging**

**A/N: First things first, this work was originally posted on AO3 here: /works/1181562/chapters/2409865 T****his is going to be pretty lengthy, and I already have quite a lot written and I just got to deaged Tony. As mentioned above, there is going to be mentions of child abuse and neglect, so possible triggers there. The pairings are as followed: Tony/Pepper and Clint/Natasha, but it is Gen, I mean, c'mon people, it's a deaging fic. Anyway, please no hate and keep in mind this is unbetaed and only read over by my very poor editing skills, so if you see a mistake, don't hesitate to tell me!**

They had found Bruce in the lab, albeit it wasn't the same Bruce who had gone down to work on some top secret project at eight o'clock at night. Bruce had been held up in his lab for the past week, quietly giddy. He ate very little, and drank even less, sticking to coffee and water. It wasn't uncommon to stroll down the hall of Stark Tower and see Bruce eagerly studying some sort of sample or the other; peanut butter smeared carelessly over his face, a half eaten bag of pretzels thrown onto the floor in the scientist's haste to clear his work table. But when Bruce disappeared into his lab at eight, and no one, not even Tony, had seen him in three hours, they began to get worried. Or at least Natasha, Clint, Thor, and Steve did. Tony made a few sexual innuendoes that no one found amusing.

Steve was the first to brave the lab. He was wearing casual jeans and a white t-shirt, which was a welcome alternative to the spangly get-up (as Tony would put it) that he seemed to wear like a second skin. However, as his foot pushed past the door barrier into what felt like near hostile and very restricted territory, he wished he taken the time to put on his suit. No time for the super soldier to be a wimp though. He moved the door the rest of the way, surprised beyond words to find the lab empty and unaltered. Tony, of course, shoved his way to the front of the group, but had to do a second take once he realized one Mr. Robert Bruce Banner was not in the facility.

"I'm pretty sure we lost Bruce." Tony said, his voice echoing around the interior of the lab. Natasha came up beside him and studied the area for herself.

"So it seems." She replied dryly. Tony snickered, but everyone could tell it was forced. He shuffled, almost Bruce like, to the station where Bruce seemed to busy himself 90% of the time. The engineer's fingers brushed the marble work station, a frown buried deep on his face.

"No Hulk, clearly." Steve interjected as he stepped up beside Tony. The genius waved him off as his eyes drifted to a place beyond the station. A long white lab coat was laying in a heap on the floor, along with brown khakis and a purple T-shirt.

"Told you he wasn't wearing any clothes." Tony gloated as he walked over to the pile. It was bulkier than an average pile of clothes would be, but Tony was honestly afraid to move aside the coat and see what was burrowed underneath. He kneeled down and rocked back on his heels. He knew Bruce hadn't voluntarily stripped, he wasn't like that, but what other alternative was there? The clothes weren't ripped, and they seemed almost neat in their order. It hadn't been coincidental that they all ended up in a singular pile so neatly.

Tony kicked aside the shoes and khakis and that was when he saw it. A little foot was sticking out from under the giant lab coat. It was pale, with a few notches where scabs were most likely picked off. With uncharacteristic hesitation, he pawed the top of the lab coat to reveal a head of bushy brown curls. _Oh no _. Tony had a sinking feeling settling in his stomach. Something had clearly gone terribly, terribly, inconceivably wrong.  
~

"What the hell are we supposed to do!" Natasha hissed as she buried her face in her hands, red curls falling into her face. Steve was pacing, a permanent frown on his lips and crease between his eyebrows. Thor was sitting up straight in the Stark Tower living room love seat, fiddling with a loose string on his casual T-shirt Jane bought him. Clint was leaning against the wall, being totally unhelpful as he observed his teammates. Tony, well Tony was holding about a thirty pound lump in his arms that was all wrapped up in a white lab coat.

"Has this...I think I owe Fury another ten dollars." Steve sighed as he finally sat down next to Natasha. She just heaved a deep breath and controlled herself.

"We need to tell Fury, or _someone _who can handle this and find out what happened." She reasoned. Tony just shook his head as he bounced from foot to foot.

"No way Little Red. Fury will stick him in some petting zoo for sure." The billionaire dared a peek down at the young face nuzzled against his shoulder. "And why do I have to hold him?"

"He's four years old, Tony! What are we supposed to tell Fury when we get called out on a mission and Hulk isn't jumping around bashing alien's faces in? I think it'll be more than noticeable if he's missing. Somehow somebody will find out and then Fury will have our asses."

"Fury's going to have our asses anyway. Being the genius I am, I should be able to find a way to reverse whatever the hell Bruce did to himself in," -Tony snapped his fingers- "the amount of time it takes Thor to eat a poptart." Steve glared at him.

"And what do you expect to do with Bruce while you're down in the lab?" He interjected before Natasha could dish out her own biting retort.

"I expect you girls are going to watch him." Tony said, staring at each of his team members like they were stupid. Clint spoke up from his place against the wall.

"Tony, we have missions and stuff. Tasha and I have to go to Russia on a top secret field op. Thor, no doubt, has to be getting back to Asgard, and Steve has volunteered to help agents refine their combat skills at a camp in Africa." The archer said. His eyes drifted to the bundle in Tony's arms. He wasn't saying that he wasn't going to help, but as of right now, everyone was pretty much booked.

"Great to know we're a big, helping family then. Despite popular belief, guys, I do have _work _to do outside of just fixing up the MARK suits. Press conferences and social gatherings and other stuff that makes me want to shot off my own head, like galas and paperwork." Tony tired of bouncing so he lowered himself to the floor and crossed his legs.

"Looks like you're going to have to reschedule." Clint argued, pushing himself away from the wall and over to the center of the living room.

"I _can't _just reschedule, Birdbrain."

"Neither can we." Natasha spoke up. "Listen, Tony, you're going to have to get help from Coulson and Pepper while you try and reverse this..."-she gestured at the bundle resting on Tony's lap- "And we'll try and do our stuff as quickly as possible. Sure, none of us are exactly experts in pediatric care, but we can give it our best shot. So long as no alien forces rain down on Manhattan and Loki doesn't escape Asgard, we should be alright." She glanced over at Steve who was nodding slowly.

"I must depart, but I will return with haste." Thor said suddenly. He swept to his feet and stormed out of the tower.

"Very befitting departure for a God of Thunder." Tony commented airly as he got to his feet and stole Thor's chair before Clint could claim it.

"Hey!" Clint whined, "You saw me eyeing that bitch!"

"I'm with child." Tony smugly retorted as he shifted Bruce in his lap for more effect. Clint rolled his eyes and sulked, kneeling on the wood floor beside the couch. Natasha reached over and patted his head soothingly.

"We have to go, Clint. Our jet has probably been waiting for at least an hour." Tasha said as he stood. Clint bit his lip and nodded.

"Just let me grab my bow." He said as he rushed down the hall, disappearing into the bedroom Tony had made specifically for him.

It wasn't long before Steve was gone too, and Tony was left alone in the love seat with Bruce perched awkwardly on his lap. Concerned that the child had yet to make a noise, Tony shifted the lab coat just enough to see the velvety soft eyelids covering Bruce's chocolatey brown eyes and the faint dusting of pink across the deaged cheeks. Bruce, being this little, was a snowy white, like, paler than anyone Tony's ever seen, except that one albino kid he knew growing up. The deep tan grown-up Bruce often adorned was missing, making the scientist seem younger and more virtuous. The tan, as Tony often saw it, was a symbol of Bruce's hiding and running and taking refuge in third world countries. But the white of his skin now sang another song; a song of Bruce's life before the Hulk became a leading force in it.

Tony smiled a little at the smooth face of his science bro. He wanted to run down to the lab and leap right in on researching Bruce's work to try and find an antidote of sorts, but he couldn't just dump the kid down on the couch and leave him. If Bruce was anything like himself as a kid, he'd no doubt be scared and confused. Tony smoothed his hand over the kid's back and breathed in deeply.

"JARVIS?" He called into the strangely silent room. His own voice echoed before the AI responded.

"Sir, how may I be of assistance?" The British voice inquired. Tony looked down at the child still passed out on his lap.

"Um...could you call Pep for me? And uh...take Bruce's measurements. I think he's going to need a new wardrobe."

"Certainly. Dr. Banner's measurements have been calculated and stored. I am dialing Ms. Potts now." The familiar sound of ringing met Tony's ears, putting him immediately at ease. It wasn't long before he heard the tired voice of one Pepper Potts.

"Tony, this better be good. I'm exhausted and I'm trying to drive." She said. Tony smiled minutely, picturing his favorite woman hunched over the steering wheel, red hair askew, and wearing sweat pants, even though he knew she was probably wearing a pencil skirt and white blouse.

"It's pretty good, Pep."

"Oh yeah?" She said condescendingly. "How good?"

"Steve just lost another ten bucks good."

"Oh." Tony could hear that her voice lifted slightly. She was finally taking him seriously.

"Um, you might want to stop at Starbucks and get a coffee or something. I think you'll want to be wide awake when you get here. Hurry home, my dear." Tony signalled for JARVIS to cut the call before Pepper could respond. He leaned back in the chair and shifted Bruce as carefully as possible so that mat of curls Bruce called hair was tucked under his arm. He looked so peaceful like this; mouth slightly open, eyelids fluttering as he dreamed, chest rising and falling in an impeccable rhythm. Tony dared to brush his thumb over the turned four year old's cheek. The skin was baby smooth against the pad of his thumb. It had been so long since Tony had been around, let alone held something as precious and breakable as a toddler. He always thought that he'd have kids of his own someday, but it hadn't been something he prioritized. And now, with the Avengers and kicking alien ass...Tony wasn't sure if he wanted a child. Not that it'd be a burden or anything, but what he had going right now, something that seemed so easy...he didn't want to give up any of it, not even for a kid.

Maybe he was being selfish. Tony had a habit of indulging in his own interests before others and all too often that was his downfall. He hadn't even talked to Pepper about it. Maybe she wanted kids and always assumed that if -when- they got married, they'd have them as time wore on, or maybe she never wanted kids. She was all about work afterall. Surely they could be happy without a child. Plenty of couples were childless by choice.

But this, Tony decided, this was nice. Even if his best friend had been deaged roughly four decades, and Tony was currently holding him in his lap, he enjoyed the peace on Little Bruce's face that was never on Big Bruce's. To think his science bro had once been this tiny, this innocent...it was a foreign feeling that was strangely warming and comforting in a way.

Tony continued to muse until he heard the ding of an elevator and the subsequent swish of it opening. Pepper stepped out, wearing her pencil skirt and blouse and casual black high heels. A case was gripped in her hand, papers under her arm, and a cappuccino in her free hand. Her hair was pulled messily back into a bun, and her makeup was smudged.

"Tony...what is that?" She gestured to the bundle of white resting on him. She cautiously took a few steps forward, dropping the case and setting the papers down on an end table. Tony waited until the drink was also on the end table before speaking.

"This," -Tony shifted the bundle around so Bruce's face peeked out between the folds of white- "is Doctor Robert Bruce Banner A.K.A The Incredible Hulk."

It was a good plan for Tony to wait until Pepper was no longer holding anything before revealing this piece of information because as soon as she saw the face of Bruce, she collapsed on the floor. Her heels clattered as they flew off of her feet. Her eyes were bright and wide, searching Tony's face for bullshit. However, the only thing she found was the conformation of the severity of the situation.

"That's...Bruce?" She breathed as she regained herself. This was crazy. Bruce could not be naked four year old in Tony's arms right now. Fucked up shit like that just didn't happen. Tony was pulling the wool over her eyes for sure. With a huff, she stood back up and straightened her skirt.

"In the flesh." Tony confirmed as he lifted the toddler higher for Pepper's inspection. She walked forward and peered at the boy, eyes dancing over every little detail.

"It does have some of the same facial features as Bruce...but that doesn't mean I'm buying it."

"First of all...it? I'm sure Bruce would appreciate you calling miniature Bruce an 'it'. Also, this isn't a joke, Pep, although I wished I thought of something like this to pull on April's Fool's Day." Pepper rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean, Tony. I don't literally mean an 'it'. I'm sure he's a male. But the question remains unanswered; what the _hell _are we supposed to do with him? You have meetings and galas booked for every day this week, and I'll be damned if I postpone them all _again _."

"You might have to. We can't exactly drag along Bruce and I'm not going without you; I need some sort of distraction and force to keep me from gravitating towards the other lovely ladies." Tony winked at her and stood, positioning Bruce on his hip and careful to keep his modesty by wrapping the lab coat coat tighter around him. "If you'll excuse us, Ms. Potts, we're going to go down -er up rather- to Bruce's bedroom and get him some clothes." The pair marched off and as soon as they were out of earshot, Pepper groaned, flopped onto the couch, and dropped her head into her hands.

"JARVIS, is this really happening?" She asked mournfully. The AI was good source to go to when she wasn't sure if Tony was bullshitting her or not.

"Unfortunately Sir is not lying this time. Dr. Banner has been regressed to the age of four." JARVIS informed solemnly. Pepper made an inaudible whining noise in the back of her throat. Of all the times for Tony to be telling the truth, it had to be under these circumstances. Of course.

Upstairs in Bruce's huge, specifically made bedroom with white walls and a purple rug that Tony installed just for kicks, said billionaire was digging through Bruce's closet to try and find the smallest item of clothing he could find. Finally, he came across some gray boxer shorts rolled up in an unopened package and a small purple t-shirt that he must have worn on the run.

Tony pulled the clothing out of the closet and laid them on the floor next to Bruce, who was propped up against the wall. Tony didn't really want to remove the lab coat and reveal everything Bruce had to offer, but there was really no other option. Glancing back over his shoulder to make sure Pepper wasn't standing in the doorway, Tony unravelled the tiny body from the lab coat. Without hesitation, he slipped the gray shorts on over the skinny thighs and pulled the purple shirt over the kid's head. Surprisingly, the child didn't even stir.

Tony kicked aside the lab coat and looked down at his friend. Bruce's t-shirt went all the way past his knees, and the boxer shorts were just hiding under the hem of the shirt. He'd have to have JARVIS order some clothes for Bruce and get them delivered. It wouldn't do it any good for Tony to go out baby shopping. Then Fury would definitely find out about their little predicament.

He swept down and gathered Bruce into his arms, feeling the steady, strong thump of Bruce's heart against his own. Body heat radiated from him like a litter furnace, which was some cause for concern, but JARVIS had assured him earlier that Bruce was not suffering from a fever. Tony carried the child as smoothly as he could back to the living room where he found Pepper snoring on the couch. So much for her being shocked senseless. He shook his head and offered a tiny smile as he watched her leg spasm in sleep. God he hated that, especially when either he'd kick her by accident or vice versus.

The genius brought Bruce to the kitchen and looked around. His stomach had been growling since he found Bruce in the lab, but since every other person in this god damned world wouldn't help him with his altered teammate, he hadn't gotten a chance to munch on anything. But Bruce was still cradled in his arms and there was no good spot to set him down. Sighing and resigning himself to a night without food, he went to his and Pepper's bedroom.

The giant bed spanned across nearly a quarter of the even more giant room. Thick, cotton comforters were strewn haphazardly across the bed, and a few pillows were scattered on the floor. Pepper and Tony might have or might not have gotten into a little pillow fight this morning. Gold laced the pure wooden backrest to the bed, a vanity was stationed in the far corner with a mirror bigger than some T.V screens, and two dressers made of mahogany lined the walls. Other than that, the room was fairly empty. Tony like to keep it that way. The bedroom was meant for sleeping and sex, not extracurricular activities.

He carried Bruce over to the bed and laid him down on Pepper's side. The shirt shifted and a corner of tender, milky white flesh poked out. Tony smoothed it down with his hand before crawling over Bruce to flop down on his side of the bed. It felt weird sharing the same room with a child, especially when said child was Bruce. The billionaire pushed the thoughts out of his head and nestled under the covers, drawing them up below Bruce's chin. He'd have to be careful not to kick or whack him in the middle of the night.

Easier said than done.


	2. Our First Day

**Warnings: Swearing 'n fluff**

**A/N: Unbetaed and I own nothing**

It was at the crack of six o'clock in the morning when Tony broke open one eye. Faint streaks of sunlight shone through the parted red curtains, and cast ominous shadows across the floor. Blankets and sheets were tangled up with Tony's legs, and the side of his face was sticky with drool. He arched his back, feeling it crack satisfactorily as he crossed his arms under his head, enjoying solitude and the quiet peace of morning.

The illusion was shattered, however, when he remember a little problem (literally) that went down yesterday. Sitting up as fast as he could, his head snapped around to search the room for Little Dr. Banner, who didn't happen to be where Tony left him.

The billionaire cursed himself. He should have known better. Was he seriously so tired that he couldn't think about precautions? Bruce was a child, yes, but Tony wasn't sure if his blood was still radioactive or not. He very well could be a Hulk waiting to happen. As his little mental freakout commenced, Tony ripped the blanket off of him and stood up, socked feet silent against the floor. He had half a mind to call JARVIS and just ask where Bruce was, but he was smart enough to realize if Bruce remained in his room, JARVIS's voice would probably cause the kid a heart attack.

Tony smoothed out the bottom on his AC/DC shirt before creeping around the end of the bed. The side of the bed Bruce had been sleeping on was rumpled, and the blankets were dangling off the edge of the bed, brushing the floor. Tony rested the palm of his hand on the pillow, one of Bruce's curly hairs on it. Worst case scenario was that Bruce had awoken shortly after Tony fell asleep, giving him an approximate nine hour head start. Tony doubted that he'd be able to get a taxi or plane ride, perhaps a bus ride...

Tomy groaned and flopped down on the edge of the bed. The kid could be miles away from Manhattan by now with a potentially destructive Hulk inside of him. Tony cast a quick look once more around the room before calling out to JARVIS.

"Hey, J, is Bruce still in the tower?" He asked. He hoped the AI would have awoken him if Bruce left the tower, or even his room, but sometime JARVIS seemed to overlook those small details.

"Yes, Sir. He is currently residing behind your night stand." JARVIS responded, his tone sounded exasperated. Tony shot to his feet and a wide smile split across his face. Peeking between the wooden legs of the night stand, he spotted the gray boxer shorts and purple T-shirt behind them. The genius kneeled on the floor and looked through the legs again and sure enough, Mini Bruce was hiding there, his skinny knees drawn up to his chest and wide brown eyes staring right back at Tony.

"Hey, bud." Tony greeted soothingly. He could only imagine how scared the toddler must be; waking up in a strange location in the same bed as a stranger...yeah Tony would have been pretty freaked too.

"Can you come out?" Tony asked, really not wanted to have to physically move the night stand to get to Bruce. The toddler looked at him with worried and downright petrified eyes. Just the look in Bruce's eyes made Tony's skin crawl. No child at that age had a right to be scared of anything. Four years old was that fearless age when you thought you were Superman and refused to eat your peas and broccoli. Bruce, however, did not seem like a Superman wanna-be. He seemed much too alert and much too terrified to be a four year old boy.

Tony watched Bruce watch him for a while before sighing and inching the stand away from Bruce. The toddler shrunk back against the wall, eyes widening a little more and fingers digging into the prickled, cold flesh on his knees. Tony instantly stopped his movement, guilt weighing in the pit of his stomach, along with worry. He had to be careful; he didn't want to scare Bruce so bad that the Hulk made an appearance, but he couldn't very well leave him behind their either, and something told Tony that Bruce wasn't going to willingly leave his perfect hiding spot.

"Listen, you must be hungry...and confused. Let me talk to you." Tony kept his voice soft and low as to not alarm the child. All the while he coaxed Bruce out, he applauded himself with his obviously superior child skills. Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with Bruce being a child and everything to do with the child being Bruce. Tony blinked slowly at Bruce, mostly to gauge the reaction of the youngster. Bruce seemed nervous and unsure, but slowly his legs began to unfurl. Tony knew that it was probably the hunger driving him towards his action. Tony knew what it was like to finally relent to adult when his stomach was rumbling with hunger.

Bruce inched out from behind the stand, brown eyes wider than the moon. His face was even paler than the previous night. Tony situated his legs underneath him in an attempt to be less intimidating. He'd read somewhere that when you were interacting with spooked animals you should try and lower or at least match their height so it doesn't seem like you're a threat.

When Bruce was mostly out from behind the stand, wariness written in each little pocket in his face and caution burning like fire in his eyes, Tony began to speak again.

"What is the last thing you remember, bud?" He asked in a near whisper. Bruce's eyes drifted lower and he shrugged. Tony found it just slightly disconcerting that this apparent fear and distrust was already rich within Bruce. No child this young had a right to be nervous. Tony knew he had a few close calls with strangers in his younger days, but that was because he approached them first.

"Um..." A low hum escaped Bruce's throat. Tony could hear his breath hitch. Those watery eyes lifted to his own again and Tony felt a little corner of his heart splinter. He couldn't begin to comprehend how scared the scientist must be.

"It's okay, Bruce. Don't be nervous." He hoped his voice wasn't too demanding. The last thing he wanted to do was start to boss him around.

"Falling asleep." Bruce whispered quickly, "Who-" He seemed to catch himself before the question left his lips. His face flushed slightly as he started warily at the man knelt before him.

"I'm Tony, a friend of your father's." Tony said, tapping his chest. The quiet ting of his nail against the arc reactor sounded through the room. At these words, Bruce blanched. A deep breath rattled through the boy's scrawny body. Tony's explanation of his identity hardly seemed to comfort Bruce, it fact in seemed to have the opposite effect. Bruce averted his eyes and shuffled his bare feet. His fingers picked at the rug nervously.

Tony's brow furrowed together. "How about we get a little chow, hm? And I'll explain this whole dilemma to you." Tony stood up slowly enough not to alarm the kid. Bruce flinched anyway. Ignoring it as just natural nerves, Tony asked JARVIS to call Shawarma and have someone deliver them some food. "You like Shawarma Bruce? Oh, _everyone_ likes Shawarma." Tony said after he hung up the phone with the Shawarma people. "Alright, how about you come with me. I have someone I think you should meet, and I bet you're hungry for Shawarma and an explanation. Lucky you I'm a good multitasker." Tony allowed an easy smile to spread like butter across his face. Bruce seemed awkward and uncomfortable, a natural demeanor for Big Bruce, but with little Bruce it was odd.

"Do you feel okay?" Tony asked, gathering his professionalism again. He turned back to the trembling four year old. Bruce's lips were pinched and his forehead creased with obvious worry and borderline stress. He allowed a tiny nod, no more than a near invisible tip of his head. His eyes drifted downward to his tiny bare feet. "Are your feet cold?" The billionaire questioned. Bruce shook his head a little too fast for Tony to be fully convinced, but he decided against confronting the kid about it. If Little Bruce was anything like Big Bruce, which Tony could tell was more than true, he would be hesitant to ask for anything. Not in the sense that he didn't admit weakness, but because he tried not to draw too much attention to himself.

"All right, come on kiddo. We got people to see and Shawarma to eat." Tony offered Bruce a quirky smile. The child's mouth didn't even twitch as he followed submissively behind Tony. Tony couldn't help but think it was bothersome. Even though he'd never admit it out loud, he hated it when people trailed behind him like they weren't his equal. He had a big ego, but he wasn't above walking next to someone, let them be the President of the United States or a homeless man on the streets.

The pair got into the elevator, which was kind of awkward for Tony, mostly because Bruce was pressing himself against the cool metal walls like Tony was about to maul him or do something else just as vicious. It hurt even more because Big Bruce was one of his best friends, and the only person Bruce seemed to be totally comfortable around. Little Bruce didn't share the same enthusiasm as Big Bruce in the pursuit of friendship, albeit he was an adult and Bruce was four.

"Pepper is who I want to introduce you to. Be warned that she can be a bit bossy," Tony glanced over at Bruce and smiled smoothy, "Promise you won't tell her I said that? She's have my as- I mean butt if she knew." Bruce seemed uncertain but gave a tiny, passive nod. His brown eyes didn't waver from the doors.

The elevator dinged as it arrived on the same floor as the kitchen and living room. Tony walked out first with Bruce tagging along reluctantly. Tony was gobsmacked that the child hadn't cried, or screamed, or asked any questions at all, besides the question he started to ask back in the bedroom.

"Tony?" Pepper's questioning voice sounded from the kitchen. Tony grinned at Bruce and steered them towards the kitchen. Pepper was behind the counter, wearing nothing more than a white tank top, mesh shorts, and a little overcoat and loafers. Her long red hair hung over her shoulders like a waterfall reflecting the sunset.

"Hey, Pep. Our little man is bright eyed and bushy tailed." Tony gestured to the hunched over three foot tall four year old. Pepper leaned over the counter to catch a glimpse of Bruce.

"Hey, honey." She greeted warmly as she moved around the counter and knelt down by him. "How are you doing?" Bruce shrugged and shuffled his feet again. Pepper shot Tony a look. "Has Tony offered to feed you yet? He's not very on top of things. You should see him when it comes to his homework." She smiled but Bruce didn't return the favor. Pepper straightened and chewed her lip in thought.

"Yes, Tony _has_ ordered some Shawarma for our guest. A kid had to eat right." Tony defend himself lightly. At he and Pepper locked eyes, a shared look of confusion and concern passed between them. Pepper sighed and looked back at Bruce.

"Those clothes don't fit that well. Tony does an awful job at picking out clothes. I...um...I have some better fitting clothes, I'll be right back." Pepper spun on her heel and went to the corner of the kitchen where three large white shopping bags sat. "I wasn't sure what you preferred," She began as she carried the bags over. "So I got a mixture of jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, shoes, and khakis. Whatever you want is yours, Bruce." She took out some of her favorite clothes; a purple t-shirt, gray jeans, brown khakis, and a pair of glowing Sketchers sneakers.

"Will the shoes fit?" Tony asked as he bent down and scooped up the tiny sneaker. The size of the tongue read _8_.

"I got his measurements from JARVIS," Pepper hissed to Tony. She didn't want to freak Bruce out by thinking someone sized him. The toddler was meanwhile preoccupied with examining his new clothing opinions anyway.

"Oh, right." Tony crouched down and looked at the high quality jeans. "These are nice. I think you'd look nice in these." He held them up. Bruce's fingers brushed against the denim and he nodded minutely. "You like?" Tony handed him the jeans. Pepper crossed her arms.

"Can you dress yourself Bruce?" The toddler nodded quickly, blushing as he stared up at her. He hugged the jeans to his chest, along with the purple t-shirt and sneakers. "I got socks and underwear for you too." Pepper said as she bent down and took both packages out. He took those from her too.

"Where can I change?" He whispered, eyes downcast. Pepper had to lean in close to make sure he was really talking and not just sighing.

"The bathroom is right over there, around that corner." She pointed around the nearest corner and Bruce nodded his thanks. He padded away, head hung and shoulders hunched in a much too similar stance as Big Bruce. As soon as they heard the bathroom door open and shut, Tony turned to Pepper.

"I need to think of an explanation and fast. He's a smart kid and will probably find some way to escape even JARVIS's eyes."

"I don't know, Tony," Pepper rubbed her forehead. "He is very nervous. What have you told him so far?"

"Just that I was a friend of his dad's. He didn't seem too impressed with that." Tony bent down and gather back up the bags. "Mom's already shopping for our little sprout. How sweet." Pepper smacked his arm.

"Tony, stop. This is serious," She began to pace a back and forth, chewing absentmindedly on her thumb nail. "I suppose we could tell him that his parents had to go because...because his grandmother was in the hospital."

"Sensitive, Pepper. What if he doesn't have a grandmother?"

"It's as good as shot as any. Not to mention that he is still an adult and will eventually be an adult again. It's not like we're ruining his whole childhood or anything. " She reasoned. Tony had to admit she had a point, but he didn't have time to say so before Bruce appeared around the corner again. The shirt was a little big, but Bruce was scrawnier than a scarecrow in a hurricane. The pants seemed the proper length, but they hung a little low on his hips. Each step Bruce took towards the adults caused his sneakers to light up. Pepper and Tony couldn't help a bright smile from crossing their faces. Bruce seemed to be more relaxed now that he was in proper fitting clothes, but he still stopped a good few feet away from them.

"Sir, the Shawarma delivery man has arrived." JARVIS said suddenly, cutting into the silence. Bruce jumped half a mile in the air, eyes shooting open wide. Tony fought back a laugh at the shocked expression.

"Thanks, J. Send him up, would you?"

"Certainly Sir."

"I meant to say earlier that Shawarma was a totally _healthy_ choice, Tony." Pepper said, voice laced with sarcasm. Bruce bit back a chuckle, a faint smile dusting his lips. Tony didn't bother hide his goofy grin at the promise of a smile. It made him happy that Bruce was finally beginning to relax. It might Tony feel like Bruce was his science bro again.

The elevator in the living room dinged as the delivery man rode up. Pepper hurried to meet him before the elevator doors opened.

"You're going to love Shawarma. There's so many...semi-great memories attach to the food," Tony smoothed his hand across his stomach. "So, I promised an explanation and you, my friend, will get one," -he laced his hands together- "Your grandmother...she had to go into the hospital because of an emergency, and your dad called me to come pick you up. You were knocked out cold, so you slept the entire plane ride to Manhattan." Bruce seemed to calculate the half-assed explanation, and nodded slowly as he bought it. Tony could still see a spark of distrust and caution in his eyes though.

"How do you...uh, how do you know my dad?" Bruce asked quietly, copying Tony's move and lacing his own fingers together.

"We worked together...briefly." Tony said and was saved by the bell when Pepper came into the room with a large brown bag.

"Really Tony? There's like ten pounds of Shawarma here." She sat the bag on the counter and took out the food: two hamburgers, three wraps, sauce of every sort, a BLT with no cheese, and two 2-liters of Pepsi. "Breakfast is served." She announced dryly, shaking her head. Tony grinned and asked Bruce what he wanted. The kid settled for the BLT, which Tony assumed he'd want. He also offered Bruce some soda, but he politely denied and opted for some orange juice. Pepper approved.

Once they finished off a majority of the food and one 2-liter, Tony could tell Bruce wasn't getting anxious. It was subtle, but noticeable. He kept looking around the room; at the ceiling and floor, studying the ornate paintings on the walls. One seemed to catch his eye and studied it for a while. It was a picture that Steve drew (and Tony reluctantly agreed to hang for team spirit) of the Avengers. It wasn't entirely accurate, but it was easy enough to tell who was who.

In the picture, Tony was near the center of the group, clad in every bit of armor besides the face plate. His arm was slung over Bruce's shoulder. Said physicist had an awkward, tiny smile on his face, and a pen was held between his fingers. He was wearing only a billowing purple button up and brown khakis. Clint was next to Bruce, a smug smile on his face as he held his bow. One leg was positioned behind him in a casual resting stance. Steve was next to Tony, a determined look on his face and dirt smudged his blonde hair. Natasha was next to Clint, red hair a little longer than Tony remembered it being. Her catsuit was dusty, which told a tale of a battle she completed victoriously. Lastly, Thor was next to Steve, a box of Poptarts in his raised hand. A triumph smile was on his handsome features.

Little Bruce seemed totally taken with the drawing. Tony leaned over his shoulder and studied it with him.

"You like art?" Tony's voice jumped Bruce, but the four year old nodded.

"Those are my...well my allies," Tony pointed to the picture, unsure whether or not Bruce could tell who he was pointing at or not. "See that man in the purple next to me? That's my best friend, my science bro. He's...in a bit of a tough situation right now, but we're _I'm_ trying my hardest to help him out of it." Bruce's eyes finally dragged away from the picture and rested on Tony.

"Like what?"

"He...well he kind of has amnesia...in a way. I see him often, but he's not the same. He will be soon though." Tony offered Little Bruce a smile that crinkled up his eyes. Pepper watched the smooth interaction between the two. She could tell, even if one was a child and one was an adult that they'd be best friends. Standing up, she smoothed down her tank top.

"You two might have the day off, but I have work to do. _Your_ work to do, Tony." Tony waved her off.

"Don't over exert yourself. Only do like...56% of the work."

"How about 12%." She smiled at him as she walked off before Tony could reply. He watched her leave with an unhidden fondness in his eyes. It was rare that he could find someone who could handle all his antics and grand schemes, and caustic attitude. There was Pepper and Bruce and sometimes Rodney, but other than that he found himself on the outs with a lot of people. Fury's description of him had been accurate; he didn't play well with people, unless said people were Bruce or Pepper.

Tony turned back to the toddler sitting next to him and dared to bump his shoulder lightly with his own. Bruce seemed uncomfortable and surprised by the move, but he didn't scooch away.

"How about we go do something," Tony rubbed his hands together. "Do you like the zoo? Ever been to the Central Park Zoo?" Bruce thought for a moment.

"I've never been there, but I like seeing bears." Bruce ventured. Tony was overjoyed that Bruce was finally more talkative, but he could still see the obvious hesitation in every word he spoke. It was like he was afraid to say _anything_.

"Alright, to the zoo we go!" Tony jumped up. "JARVIS, call Happy for me. Actually, scratch that. I'm driving." The AI didn't even bother to answer him. The billionaire turned back to Bruce.

"You might be a little chilly. Want a sweatshirt?" Bruce nodded and got up to get the sweatshirt for himself. Tony watched his friend pad away, shoes lighting up with each step.

The ride to the Central Park Zoo was mostly quiet with Tony occasionally pointing out landmarks. After a while seeing all the sights of New York City is became mundane. He'd been to every remotely notable place in New York and after the first dozen galas, they all really lost their initial glamour.

Tony pulled up to the Zoo, psyched to see that the crowds were minimum. "Ready, bud?" He asked, unbuckling both him and Bruce's seatbelt. Bruce peered out the window and nodded. The giant sign reading 'Central Park Zoo' loomed and Tony, although having visited before with Pepper, was excited to visit it with Bruce. To see the awe in the youngster's eyes would make Tony's heart swell. It would be such a welcome change to Bruce's near permanent worry.

Bruce allowed a minuscule smile to dance across his face, the first real smile Tony had seen out of him all day. His brilliant brown eyes were alight with excitement and the frown between his eyebrows had smoothed over. Today was going to be a fun day.


	3. Menagerie

**Warnings: Swearing and fluff**

**A/N: unbetaed and I own nothing**

"Tony, look!" Bruce said, excitement lightening his voice. Happiness and unrestrained glee shone in his eyes and a huge grin split open his face. His initial hesitation and caution seemed to be displaced by the obvious enjoyment he was feeling. However, Bruce still kept his voice low and opinion-stating to a minimum. Tony was just glad to see the turned toddler loosen up a bit.

"What is it bud?" Tony asked, joining Bruce by the metal chain link fence. Bruce pointed through the gaps at the large moose half hidden behind a large tree. The soft, reddish brown velvet of the antlers was peeking out through the tangle of green and dark brown vines and leaves. The rusty mahogany of the moose's flank was visible through a swath of dipped ferns. Tony peered through the dense throng of trees and bushes, spotting the moose. He grinned down at Bruce.

"Isn't he pretty?" Bruce awed, fingers tangled through the metal links. Tony adored the playful, warm glint in those usually so guarded chocolate colored eyes. Tony nodded almost thoughtfully.

'If I was him, I wouldn't like being called pretty. Handsome and sexy maybe." Tony said after a moment. Bruce let out a little laugh.

"Yeah, handsome." He agreed. They watched the moose for a little longer, but the colossal animal seemed to be sleeping, or at least unimpressed with the two humans watching him, so they wandered gradually off. Bruce skipped down the concrete, taking a brief look at the turtle pond.

"Not interested in the marine?" Tony asked. Bruce glanced back at him and shrugged, tugging at the shoulders of his sweater.

"They're okay." Bruce explained passively. The billionaire looked at him for a moment.

"They're not that interesting." He reassured. Bruce smiled and bounded ahead again. Tony could tell Bruce was enjoying himself and that was all fine and dandy, but he couldn't keep the lab out of his mind. He needed to start on the research to turn Bruce back. He wanted to keep the kid happy, but the bottom line was that Bruce needed to be turned back to Big Bruce. Pepper would have to keep track of him while Tony spent the majority of his day in the lab. That is until the rest of the Avengers decided to pull their weight.

"Look at the polar bear." Bruce gasped, from inside a metal cave dug into the ground. Tony trotted down the steps to join him. The huge white bear was coasting underneath the water, hulking paws propelling it through the water like a fish. Bruce had his face pressed against the glass, breath fogging it up. Every time the bear turned in the water, its pearly black eyes meeting Tony and Bruce's.

"The only thing this scene is missing is a Coca-Cola bottle." Tony joked lightly. Bruce didn't really seem to catch on to it, but that didn't deter his chuckle. He rose onto his toes, watching the bear swim back and forth, back and forth. While Bruce seemed captivated by the natural elegance of the creature, Tony got bored of watching it. He lowered himself onto the provided bench and took out his Stark Phone.

_Can u watch Bruce when we get home? _He sent the message to Pepper, tapping his foot as he waited for her reply.

_Sure. What time r u getting back? _Pepper replied, prompt as always.

_Idk. Tssk Tssk Pep, texting during a meeting?_

_Uh-huh. Maybe if u came 2 one every once in awhile you'd undrstnd* y im texting_

_Admit it. U no im just irresistible_

_Maybe ur irresistible 12% of the time_

Tony decided not to respond. It was just like Pepper to throw something like that back in his face. Geez, women could sure exploit one little comment and hold it over men's heads for all of eternity, couldn't they? He watched Bruce play with the polar bear through the glass a little longer before deciding that if they were going to get home at a remotely reasonable hour, they should probably go see the rest of the zoo. Tony stood and clapped his hands against his thighs.

"C'mon Bruce. I think Big White needs a break." He said cheerfully. The kid didn't even argue at all, even though disappointment flashed through his eyes. Tony could vaguely remember his blatant disobedience and rebelliousness towards his parents that last all throughout his childhood and adolescence. Although Tony would never admit it to himself, he knew it was because he seeked attention, of any sort. Whether it be reprimand or praise. The latter was inexplicably harder to obtain.

Shaking off his own pity, he gently steered Bruce out of the cave with a feather light touch on his shoulder. Bruce seemed mildly uncomfortable with the physical action, but he didn't jump or shake of Tony's hand. That was a definite plus. The pair stopped at various exhibits, watching the exotic and something common animals enjoying the attention and warm sunlight despite the breeze. Bruce, much to Tony's not-so-concealed amusement, took time to read the paragraphs about each of the animals. He didn't ask any questions, but Tony could see the curiosity burning like wild fire in his eyes. It hurt him a little to think that either A) Bruce didn't want to be a burden and ask too many questions or B) Didn't think Tony was smart enough to answer any of said questions.

After visiting every enclosure and thoroughly observing each (interesting) animal in their habitat, it was about three by the time they were leaving. Not to be called a bad babysitter, Tony offered to buy Bruce something at the gift shop.

"I think you'd been into the kickass science books they have in there. Not physics or chemistry or anything _truly_interesting, but they have some animal books. Or maybe I'm generalizing you too much. Perhaps a stuffy? I always like playing- but you know. Whatever." Tony blabbed and ended with a shrug. Bruce's amused smile made Tony smile too, but Bruce made no move towards the gift shop. "So...a book? Toy? Candy? Whatever you want bud."

"I don't know." Bruce mumbled, shifting back into his awkward phase. His eyes locked on a split in the concrete. He poked at it with his toe. Tony frowned. What happened? The toddler had just started to open up and reveal his true colors and now...well now it seemed like they were back on page one.

"How about all three?" Bruce's head snapped up at that. Tony could see the hopefulness in his friend's young eyes, but also the uncertainty and disbelief. Had no one ever offered for Bruce to go inside a gift store and buy something before? Tony didn't know much about Bruce's family, but he thought that his father was a scientist. They might not have been the richest folk, but surely an accomplished scientist like Bruce's father made a decent coin. Or maybe he was just cheap.

"All three it is then." Tony pretended to ignore the obvious hesitation ridden in Bruce's body. It would do no good for him to press the little guy, especially when he didn't know if Bruce's blood was still radioactive or not.

They walked inside the gift store, instantly swarmed by much too eager employees and too loud music. Bruce cowered behind Tony's keeping his back to the door as if he'd need an emergency escape route. Despite the fact that there were several other shoppers in the gift shop, the employees made it their top priority to see specifically to him. Figures.

"Iron Man?" A woman's voice said in disbelief. A young girl, barely 21 if Tony had to guess, rushed forward, blond hair bouncing over her shoulders. A huge, shocked smile was on her face and her blue eyes were burning bright. "Would you sign this?" She held out what Tony thought was a napkin. Grimacing, he looked it over to make sure it wasn't used before turning on his charming smile.

"Anything for a beautiful woman." He flirted casually as he unclipped his pen from his breast pocket. He sighed the napkin quickly and handed it back to her. He ignored the high pitched squeal that escaped her throat. She folded it delicately and slipped it into her purse.

"I just wanted you to know I'm your biggest fan."

"I think Pepper had you beat there." She laughed at that.

"Oh," Her eyes caught sight of the curly head just visible behind Tony's legs. "Are you...is this your son?" A shocked look passed over her face as she returned her eyes to his.

"Um..." Tony said dumbly, peeking behind him at his deaged friend clinging to his leg. "Him? No. He's my...uh nephew." The girl stared quizzically at him.

"I didn't think you had any siblings."

"He's not _actually _my nephew," Tony sighed as he thought up a somewhat believable excuse. "He's Clint's, er, Hawkeye's son. But you know, he's like family." He offered her a gracious smile as he grabbed a hold of Bruce's wrist and pulled him along behind him as they hurried away. However, before he was out of earshot, he heard the sharp gasp of the fan as she processed the information.

_Fuck. Legolas was going to kill him. _Tony thought bitterly as he pulled Bruce to the stuffed animals rack. He heard the fan girl squealing as she gossiped about Clint's "son" to the employees and other shoppers. As the crowds around them gradually dispersed, Bruce relaxed visibly. Prying himself out of Tony's hand, he thumbed through the layers of stuffed animals. Although his fingers passed right over it, Bruce hesitated in the slightest when he caught sight of a penguin. It was small, about the size of Tony's palm, and had thick, cheap white and black fur. Small, almost peevish, pearly black eyes were glued lopsided to the penguin's face and the beak was a pale orange. Tony didn't think it looked like all that, especially not when it was stuffed between a grinning chimpanzee and lion cub, but Bruce was taken with it.

Seeing the toddler wouldn't take the initiative and reveal what he wanted, Tony pulled the penguin off of the shelf and looked it over, Bruce's eyes carefully watching him. "This one has personality." Tony commented truthfully. Not the most attractive, but with definite personality.

"Yeah..." Bruce agreed nonchalantly, wringing his hands together in an all too familiar motion. Tony waggled the stuffy.

"You like this one?" Bruce shrugged.

"It's okay...yeah, he's cool." The nervous toddler said quietly. Tony smirked and looked over the penguin once more.

"Penguin it is then," Tony tucked the stuffy under his arm. "Candy now?" Bruce followed Tony over to the clear boxes all filled with candy. Smarties, Jelly Beans, Sour Patch Kids, Baby Bottles, and M&Ms. There were also Skybars, Hershey's, Skittles, and Reese Peanut Butter Cups. Tony licked his lips. "Yum. What kind of candy do you like Bruce?"

"I don't know." Bruce said as he studied each treat like it was a complex algebraic formula. "I've never had any before." Tony clapped Bruce on the shoulder in shock. He pretended not to notice when Bruce jerked away from the sudden pressure on his shoulder.

"You've never had _candy _? Seriously?" The billionaire gasped. Shaking his head, he grabbed one of the plastic bags provided and filled it to the brim with every available candy. "Than you, my good sir, are going to eat so much candy you are going to throw up." Bruce's eyes widened.

"Really?" He squeaked.

"Yeah, well no, not really. But you can try." Tony led the way to the childish books all sitting in a stack on a bookshelf. Bruce combed through them until he came across a book about the evolution of wolves. Hugging it to his chest, he cast a look up at Tony. It was damn near pleading, yet hopeless. Not one to disappoint, he nodded, voiced his agreement of Bruce's choice, and purchased the items.

Walking back to the car, Bruce gathered all of his purchases in his arms, hugging them to his chest. The flat head on the penguin was nestled under his chin. Tony couldn't hide how heartrendingly cute it was.

"Welcome back." Pepper said as the elevator dinged and Tony and Bruce stepped out. She was holding a bowl and wearing a flour dusted apron. Tony quirked his eyebrow.

"You never cook, Pep. What's the occasion?" He teased. Bruce, still clinging onto his newly bought possessions, made his way over to the couch and flopped down. He opened his book to the first page, drew his knees to his chest, and rested both the penguin and book in his lap so it appeared that the stuffy was reading too.

"No occasion." She smiled and glanced over at Bruce. "I figured our little man could use a taste of homemade cookies," -she shrugged- "No promises though. I'm a businesswoman not a baker." Tony went over and peeked at the light brown dough sprinkled with chocolate chips. He dipped his fingers in the dough and ate it, smacking his lips.

"Taste genuine."

"That's how people get salmonella you know." She reprimanded lightly. "As happy as I am that you like it," -she added in a lower voice- "I think it's time you should start on that research. He's adorable but...I have a hunch The Avengers are going to need Hulk." Tony nodded and ate a bit more batter.

"You're right." Tony said, looking at Bruce who was completely engrossed in his book.

"I'm _always _right." Pepper swooped in and kissed him lightly on the lips. A moment of silence passed between them as the watched Bruce.

"You're always right 12% of the time." He countered lightheartedly. She smacked him but didn't bother to respond. Instead, she went back to the kitchen to finish her cookies. Tony padded over to Bruce and crouched in front of him. Bruce's brown eyes tore away from the book and met his.

"Hey, I have some work to do, so Pepper," -he pointed towards the kitchen- "is going to be here with you. And she's baking cookies, which she's never done before. I'm sure she won't poison you though." Bruce chuckled.

"I will see you soon?" He asked, pulling the penguin closer to him. Tony patted his little knees as he stood.

"Of course. I'll be back before Pepper has a chance to tuck you in." He smiled and Bruce nodded and smiled back.

Tony sighed as he studied Bruce's research. It would appear that he was working, once again, on a cure to the Hulk. Tony wasn't going to say that he was totally gobsmacked, but at the same time he thought the Avengers had something beautiful going, _with _the Hulk. Who, mind you, saved the world during Loki's attack on New York. It was semi heartbreaking to think that that feat meant very little to Bruce. He still saw Hulk as some uncontrollable beast with a narrow mind and one emotion; anger. Tony, and every other Avenger, besides maybe Natasha who was still a little bit jumpy around the big guy, saw Hulk's true colors. Angry, yes, was protective too. He knew, they all did, that Hulk didn't smash people because it was fun (okay, maybe sometimes, but that relates more to objects than people) but because he thought they posed a genuine threat to Bruce. The Hulk's job, in essence, was to protect Bruce and make sure he was safe. It was the reason the Hulk was created after all.

Nevertheless, this field was more up Bruce's alley, not Tony's. He was an engineer, not a chemist. He didn't know what the hell Bruce managed to do to himself and what he was really trying to do. Given the data, however, Tony assumed Bruce was trying to alter his cells and get rid of the Hulk presence so obviously on them. Those angry, inflamed, green cells which harbored the basest being of Hulk. But obviously the injection Bruce gave himself didn't get rid of the Hulk, at least not singularly. As Tony saw it, there were two possibilities. Possibility A was that Bruce managed to rid himself of Big Green, but in the process and unfortunate and unforeseen side effect occurred deaging Bruce to the age of four. Possibility B (Tony harbored a greater liking towards this one) was that Bruce did not successfully delete the Hulk and instead the injection made him regress to the age of four.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. He was definitely smart enough to figure this out, but given the nature of the science...well it would be akin to putting together a puzzle without the picture. But he could do it. Fortunately, Bruce was very organized and what information he did write down was all neatly stacked and all of his blood samples (Tony needed to make sure SHIELD didn't know about this) and other samples were on a rack, labeled accordingly. Unfortunately, Bruce wrote down very little. Knowing that Bruce was both big on his privacy and slightly paranoid, albeit with good reason, that someone would stumble across it and attempt to make another Hulk (hence the Abomination) it came as no surprise. It was the very reason Bruce requested that his lab be private with Tony the only one able to gain access without Bruce's permission and JARVIS not being able to see and record anything in the lab.

That man could sure be a headache sometimes. Tony shook his head and got back to work.

The cookies had been delicious. Easily the best Bruce had every had, or so he told her. Pepper had eaten two or three and thought they were great for her first time. Bruce had stuck to one and dipped it in the glass of milk Pepper provided. Now they were snuggled, sort of, on the couch and watching Monster's Inc. Bruce's favorite character was the little one-eyed green guy. Pepper couldn't recall his name.

The movie ended around five, and by that time Bruce seemed bored with the T.V. Genius children were easily the hardest to keep busy. Bruce was clearly very intelligent at this age, if his well-tuned motor skills and reading abilities were anything to go by.

"What do you want to do now?" Pepper asked. Bruce shrugged and yawned, hugging his penguin closer to him. A moment of silence passed before Bruce worked up the courage to ask Pepper a question.

"When will Mommy come and get me?" He asked in a quiet voice. Brown eyes too big for his little face turned up to face her. Pepper felt her heart break. She placed one hand gently atop his head and offered a tiny smile.

"Soon, darling. Daddy and Mommy will come and get you soon." She reassured. Her words seemed to have the opposite effect though. Bruce scrunched up his face and hid it in the feathers of the penguin. When she tried to comfort him, he shied away, inched to the opposite end of the couch. _What did I say wrong? _Pepper thought, confusion written across her face. It was odd of Bruce to go from snuggling to being withdrawn and totally opposed to human contact. It was _very_odd.

Tony got back from Bruce's lab at around eight. Pepper had worked on her Stark tablet and Bruce had mostly read. He was surprised to walk in and feel the tension thick in the air and see Pepper and Bruce icily ignoring each other as they sat at opposite ends of the couch.

"Daddy's home!" Tony greeted as he stepped it, sneakers smacking against the floor as he kicked them off. Bruce jumped visibly before relaxing at the sight of Tony. Unfurling himself, the toddler rushed over and latched himself to his leg. The billionaire reached down to ruffle his hair.

"I think Bruce is ready for bed." Pepper said, looking over her shoulder at her boyfriend. Tony nodded, dark circles already under Bruce's eyes.

"You ready for bed bud?" He asked. Bruce nodded and detached himself from Tony's leg. He padded back over to the couch and gathered his gift shop possessions, minus the candy that was sitting half-eaten on the coffee table, and headed back towards Tony. Bidding goodnight to Pepper, they both went up to Bruce's bedroom.

After getting Bruce into pajamas (a polka dot onesie) and brushing his teeth and hair (and using the bathroom before bed) Tony knelt down by the bed while Bruce pulled the thick blankets up to his chin. The penguin was tucked under Bruce's arm and the book was laid next to him in the giant bed.

"You going to be okay here all by yourself?" Tony asked, tucking the blanket around Bruce's tiny, tiny legs and torso. He nodded, eyes bleary. "Have you named your penguin yet?" Bruce looked at said stuffy and pulled it out from under his arm. He studied it for a moment, little nose scrunching in concentration.

"I like Popper." He declared quietly. Tony nodded.

"I like Popper too. Any reason why?" Bruce shrugged at Tony's inquiry.

"Mommy read Mr. Popper's Penguins to me. He looks like one of the penguins in the book, and I think Popper just sounds like a good name for him." He explained. A warm smile split open Tony's face. He never read that book himself, but just seeing Bruce like this, so tiny and so innocent, recalling the penguin book his mother read to him, it was amazing. Of course, the toddler did seem on edge and that was to be expected. He was living with complete strangers after all.

"That's an excellent name."

"Can I ask a question?" Bruce asked quietly.

"Anything."

"What is..." He pointed at the arc reactor humming softly from Tony's chest. The bright blue illuminated his face as he looked down at it.

"This is an arc reactor. I was in an attack a while ago and got hit with some shrapnel. This little magnet keeps that metal from entering my heart and killing me. It keeps me alive and...well it protects me." Tony explained. Little Bruce's genuine curiosity was so close to Big Bruce's it was easy to imagine his grown up friend asking the very same question. Tony assumed now that Bruce's curiosity was more childlike in wonder than Big Bruce's scientific curiosity. But no matter, curiosity was curiosity no matter what.

Bruce nodded and yawned, eyes drifting shut as he magically zonked out. Tony called JARVIS for the lights, brushed a loose curl out of Bruce's face, and left the room quietly. The kid had sure been exhausted. He made his way down the hall a few doors until he came to he and Pepper' s room. His girlfriend was curled up on the bed with her tablet, red hair in a messy bun on top of her head and wearing one of Tony's AC/DC shirts.

He crawled into the bed next to her and offered a smile. She smiled back, but it was miniscule. Sighing, she sat aside the tablet, brow creasing.

"Tony...about Bruce."

"Yeah?"

"He asked me today when his mom was getting him. Have you made any headway into what happened and how to reverse it?"

"No...not really. Bruce was just trying to execute the Hulk and well, abracadabra this happened. I don't know why or how, but it did."

"This lie you have fabricated about his grandmother being in the hospital isn't going to hold up for long. If this takes you...say weeks, god forbid months, he's not stupid, Tony. He's going to figure out that his grandmother isn't dying in the hospital. And if she was and just taking a long time," -Pepper grimaced- "then they'd come to pick Bruce up. We have to think of something more solid."

"I never thought I'd see you be so manipulative, let alone talk about lying in such a colloquial way. I'm impressed." Tony said smugly as he got under the covers.

"'I learn from the master." She said in a withered tone. She asked JARVIS to get the lights and curled up next to Tony, Bruce's odd reaction on her mind.


	4. Of Nightmares, Hot Cocoa, and Stories

**Warnings: Nightmares, mild swearing, fluff**

**A/N: Unbetaed and I own nothing**

New York is the city that never sleeps. Cars and trolleys are constantly going back and forth on the narrows roads, honking and swerving dangerously around each other. Night owls wandered the streets smoking their cigarette buds and texting on their IPhone or chatting absentmindedly with a stranger who happened to cross their path. The insomnia of the city was contagious, and when you added night terrors on top of that, well sleep was a luxury. Tony had fallen straight to sleep after his brief chat with Pepper, but it had only been three or so hours afterward that his bright brown eyes flickered open. His skin was clammy with sweat, his chest heaved painfully up against his arc reactor, and he was cold and shaking like a leaf.

Awful flashbacks of Afghanistan often flooded Tony's vulnerable and unconscious mind at any opportune moment. They were like rats, scurrying up and down the tunnels of his brain waiting for the right time to scratch him raw. Pepper had been concerned when Tony would wake up screaming, fear making his vision red. But he learned to control that and no longer screamed when he jerked awake. He assured Pepper every morning that he'd slept peacefully when in truth he spent a large majority of his night down in the lab. Sometimes that could be used as a distraction. Sleep, to him, was no a welcome release. It wasn't a time for all of his worries to slowly fade away and to be replaced with unicorns and rainbows. To him it was like a raven's claw, stretching out towards him with those piercing black talons.

Shaking himself, Tony slid out of bed, bare feet smacking soundlessly against the soft rug. He padded over to the door and went out into the hall. A coffee and some lab time would be a sufficient enough distraction for the time being. Plus, he could try and make some more headway into Bruce's condition.

Speaking of the devil...Tony turned in the opposite direction and shuffled down the hall towards the toddler's room. He was still a few feet away when he heard quiet whimpers and the sound of sniffling. Concerned and curious, Tony cracked open the door. In the pitch black of the room, illuminated only minutely by Tony's blue arc reactor glow, he could see the glimmer of eyes coming from the center of the room. The whimpering stopped and the faint rustle of blanket's filled the silence. The glimmer from the eyes was gone.

Tony crept in, the door clicking shut behind him. He used the glow from his arc reactor as a flashlight lest he trip and break his head open on the floor. Once beside the bed, he saw the rumpled blankets and the fuzzy head of Bruce poking out.

"Bruce?" He asked quietly, easing himself onto the edge of the bed. The toddler stirred, but didn't turn towards Tony. From the glow, however, he could see Bruce's fist pressed against his mouth and a snail track of tears caked down his cheeks. Tony hummed and shimmied up next to Bruce, spreading out beside him. The four year old rolled onto his side to face Tony, eyes downcast and watery. The billionaire spread his palm against Bruce's shoulder in a comforting way. Even though Big Bruce was a master at hiding the fact that he had night terrors too, the frequent use of the panic room suggested otherwise.

"I'm sorry." Bruce said meekly, wiping a pudgy hand across his eyes. It was then that Tony noticed the hazy sheen on green in the brown background of the toddler's eyes. Hesitantly, Tony removed his hand and swiped his finger across Bruce's flushed red cheek. The eerie light from the arc reactor lit up Bruce's tiny face like a flashlight at a campfire.

"For what, bud?" He asked softly. He was sure he looked like some horrific monster from a bad horror movie in the poor glow, what with the dark circles and bags under his eyes, the sharp lines of red in the whites of his eyes, and the unhealthy crimson burning on his cheeks against his paled skin. If he was Bruce, he'd be pretty damn scared of him right now.

"Waking you up." Bruce whispered. There was so much _guilt _in that little voice than their ought to be in anyone's voice, let alone a four year olds. That was completely ignoring the fact that Bruce was guilty over something he didn't even do, and even if he had, there was no reason for him to be ashamed.

"You didn't wake me up. I was already awake when I heard you." Tony reassured. The toddler allowed a little relieved smile to leak onto his face. He tucked his hands under his chin as he studied Tony. The flush of green in his eyes had all but disappeared. The billionaire was relieved, in an almost selfish way. It had confirmed his quiet question if Bruce still harbored the Hulk in his deaged body, but in a selfish way Tony was glad he didn't have to worry about dealing with Mini-Hulk right now. He was ashamed of that.

"Oh." Bruce breathed, the last of the green leaking from his eyes. Tony returned his hand to Bruce's shoulder and squeezed.

"Why are you awake?" He asked. The toddler snuggled against the mattress and thought over his answer for a moment.

"I had a nightmare." He admitted quietly. Bruce's thumbs instantly began to twiddle. Tony smiled and caught both of the little hands with one of his.

"Oh god damn. Those f-ing nightmares." Tony filtered his speech in respect for the little life he was currently in close quarters with. Bruce chuckled and buried his head in the pillow to hide his rising smile. "Guess what? I had a nightmare too." Bruce's eyes flickered up to Tony.

"Was it scary?"

"Yeah...but I doubt it was as scary as yours. You know what," Tony sat upright and snapped his fingers. "Whenever I have a nightmare, I always get myself a hot cocoa and just hang out for a while. So how about you and I go make some cocoa with big marshmallows?" Bruce nodded eagerly and untangled himself from the mess of blankets. Tony helped Bruce out of bed, the toddler stumbling a little at the impact. His curly hair was in knots, the blue glow washed over his pale face, highlighting the freckles on his face that weren't visible when he was older.

"Mommy makes hot cocoa after we get done playing in the snow." Bruce revealed almost cautiously as the duo shuffled out of his room. The hallway was dark, despite the glow, but Tony didn't want to risk turning on the light and waking Pepper up. This was going to be Guy's Night.

"Where'd you grow up?" Tony asked as he offered his hand to Bruce. The toddler took it and they walked into the elevator.

"Dayton."

"Ohio?" He asked as he punched in the floor number.

"Mhm."

They rode down the elevator in a mutual silence. Bruce tugged awkwardly at the sleeves to his green p.j shirt and shuffled his socked feet meekly. Tony too felt the slight awkwardness of the small, enclosed elevator thick in the air. This, in turn, made him feel doubly awkward because awkwardness was not an emotion Tony felt too often. The ride down felt much too long, so long in fact Tony thought the elevator might have shut down.

Finally the ding sounded and the doors swooshed open. The duo walked out and into the kitchen, Bruce lagging behind a little. Dark and anxious bags hung under his dull brown eyes, and his skin was sickly patchy and ghastly white. His little hands twiddled nervously, and occasionally played with the tails of his button up. Tony stuck a hot cocoa k-cup in the Keurig. He promptly grabbed a Disney World coffee cup and stuck it underneath. Bruce tugged back a kitchen chair at the wooden table and crawled into it, laying back on his heels. He rested his elbows against table and dropped his heads into his hands. Tony waited until the autonomic coffee maker groaned before putting in his own k-cup and pushing the medium button.

"Do you like milk or whipped cream in your cocoa?" The billionaire asked as he pulled open the fridge and looked expectantly over his shoulder at Bruce.

"Both." He said, eying the steaming, chocolate brown liquid in the cup. Tony took out the Cool-Whip and whole milk. He poured a decent amount into the cocoa and spooned the Cool-Whip onto the cocoa in dollops. By the time he finished, Tony's cocoa was finished. He repeated the progress in his own, going easy on the Cool-Whip, and carried both mugs overs to the table. He kicked back his chair and sat down, sliding the Disney World mug over to Bruce.

"Thank-you." He whispered as his little hands closed around the plastic. He peered over the top of the mug, steam causing a faint pink flush to appear on his cheeks. Tony took the first sip, the heat burning the tip of his tongue slightly. Although it was benignly painful, the warmth of the liquid sliding down his throat and warming his stomach was well worth the momentary discomfort. Bruce, on the other hand, opted to dart his tongue out and lick at the Cool-Whip. The childish and innocent display caused Tony to smile as he stared his friend down from his end of the table.

"What was your dream about, Bruce?" The toddler's head snapped up and his tongue hid inside his mouth. He blushed as if he was prepared to be reprimanded for his behavior. When no scolding came, Bruce leaned back in his seat and unfolded his legs from underneath himself. He cradled the mug in his hands and rested his wrists against his knees. He contemplated Tony's question as though it was an algebraic equation.

"It was fuzzy," He began slowly, hesitantly, "and it's hard to remember. If kinda felt more like an old memory than a dream." Tony couldn't help but notice the advanced vocabulary for Bruce's age.

"My dreams are like that too." Tony agreed, sipping at his cocoa again. Bruce rolled the mug in his hands as he stared at the melting Cool-Whip in the liquid.

"It was a sort of mixture of red and green. A lot of noise. It was scary, like I wasn't in control of everything." He continued. Tony nibbled on his lower lip. Bruce had told him the sometimes in his sleep, memories from the Hulk came flooding to the surface. No doubt this was one of those times. He reached across the table and squeezed Bruce reassuringly on the shoulder. The toddler didn't seem impressed, but he didn't flinch away like he used to.

"The first time I had hot cocoa was when I six. I went skiing for the first time in Maine, and it was so _cold _out. We stopped by the ski lodge after, and they were offering free hot cocoa. I wanted to try some. Ever since then I always found it...soothing." Tony shared, "And I mean in Maine, it was really fucking cold, like freezing my balls off cold." Bruce giggled, but he didn't know at what.

"The first time I had hot coca was with my Mommy. It was after the first snowman we ever made." Bruce said quietly. He brought the mug back up to his lips, savoring the hot drink. Tony's smile crinkled up his eyes. They sat in a calm silence, sipping at their cocoa and Cool-Whip leaving white stains behind on their upper lips. After they polished off their drinks, they both reclined backwards, Tony's fingers curling behind his head and Bruce's hands knitted across his stomach.

"Getting tired, bud?" Tony asked after a few minutes of silence. Bruce's eyes flickered up to Tony and he made a so-so gesture. Tony saw right through the loosely fabricated lie and stood. He smoothed down his tattered AC/DC shirt and helped Bruce off of the too-high chair.

Tony brought Bruce back to his room. The toddler climbed up onto the bed and slipped underneath the covers, tugging them up to his chin. He expectantly turned towards Tony who dropped to one knee beside him. A small smile danced across his face as he tucked the blankets in around Bruce. "Think you'll be okay?" The billionaire asked, as he rested his elbows on his knees.

"Thank-you and yes." Bruce said as he snuggled down further underneath the covers. Tony patted Bruce's little knee and stood. The glint of his arc reactor in the dark splashed across Bruce's face, leaving him in a near eery light. His brown eye's, warm with trust and sleep, watched as Tony backed out of the room. He left the door open a crack and decided to leave the hallway light on. He knew statistics showed that any intrusion of light when someone was asleep usually only resulted in insomnia and restlessness, but he also knew statistics showed that children were less likely to have nightmares when light was visible.

Tony always had the comforting presence of the arc reactor, illuminating the pitch blackness of the room he slept in. Pepper would occasionally mumble about how she was getting insomnia from the light, but Tony knew she secretly loved it, if her warm palm pressed against it as she slept was anything to go by.

He shuffled back into the bedroom and used the light to make his way over to the bed. He got under the covers and curled up beside Pepper, her long hair tickling his nose. A sigh rippled from his chest as he shut his eyes and buried his nose in the back of her neck.

He didn't wake up again for the rest of the night and neither did Bruce.


	5. Put Put's Mini Golf

**Warnings: Swearing and Fluff**

**Note: I own nothing and this is unbetaed**

The next week had been fairly uneventful, meaning Bruce mostly locked himself in his bedroom and read or watched educational television programs, Pepper worked, and Tony delved deeper into Bruce's little (literally) condition. Unfortunately, Tony's efforts have so far been moot. Damn Bruce and his privacy.

Bruce, although predominantly in his bedroom, was more open around both Pepper and Tony and seemed to enjoy to at least a small extent spending time with them. Pepper reassured Tony that on his long days in the lab, Bruce did come out, eat, and even watch T.V with her. He had originally been worried that Bruce's was drawing away from them, but Pepper insisted that wasn't the case. She said that Bruce was a very smart and quiet child and often found solace within himself that he could not find when others were around. Tony made a quip about cats then and Pepper smacked his arm.

Needless to say, the week had been largely mundane and nightmare-free, which was a plus. But now it was weekend, Tony, for once, was sick of being stuck in a lab (if was leagues less fun when Bruce's wasn't around) and decided that what everyone needed was a good ol' fashioned vacation.

"Mini-golf." Tony declared during dinner Friday's night. He was munching on strictly cheese nachos, Bruce was eating pepperoni pizza (his favorite dish), and Pepper was eating sushi (Both Bruce and Tony made a disgusted face at that so-called food and in sync preformed the universal gagging gesture). Pepper sighed and dabbed at her chin with a folded cloth.

"You know I'm no good at golf, Tony-" She began. Tony cut her off with a 'tssk'.

"Now Pepper, it's not all about you, now is it?" He turned to Bruce who seemed more or less oblivious to the conversation. "Brucey, do you like mini-golf?

"I've never played." Bruce revealed timidly, twiddling his thumbs together like he always did when he was put on the spot. "But Mommy sometimes watches golf." He offered. Tony couldn't keep the big grin from breaking across his face. Little Bruce was just too adorable.

"Well, if you haven't played mini-golf, we need to fix that stat. We need to give you a taste of the wild side buddy," Tony chortled. "JARVIS, any good mini-golf places around here?"

"Just outside of the city, Sir, there is Put-Put's Golf. Four out of five stars." The AI responded, sounding as bored as artificial intelligence could.

"Tony, your nachos are getting cold." Pepper observed. The forgotten nachos were, in fact, looking a little soggy. The billionaire gave a dignified snort and ate one of the chips with the most cheese. Bruce picked at a bright red sliver of pepperoni before idly sticking it in his mouth. "Bruce," Pepper said quietly. "Don't do that, it's unsanitary." The toddler blushed and ducked his head down. Tony didn't miss the flash of panic in his eyes as he did so. He cleared his throat.

"Pepper, he's eating with his hands anyway." Tony tried to convey his 'don't-correct-him-too-much-it-scares-him' thought through his words. Pepper gazed back at him, but more or less grasped what he was trying to tell her. She folded her napkin in her lap and placed a comforting hand on Bruce's shoulder. The little guy flinched; Tony couldn't tell if it was involuntary or not.

"Tony's right, I'm sorry." She said soothing, not removing her hand despite Bruce's obvious discomfort. Those big brown eyes had yet to raise themselves, and the slice of pizza, half eaten, seemed to be abandoned. Tony clapped his hands together in an attempt to break the awkward silence commencing in the room.

"Tomorrow morning you, me, and Pepper are going to go play mini-golf." Tony declared to Bruce. "How does that sound?" Bruce made no effort to respond. Instead, he just kept his eyes downcast. Tony watched the disconcerting behavior closely, but not to closely that Bruce would notice. Pepper, too, kept an open eye on the toddler throughout dinner, just waiting to see if he even took another bite of pizza or sip of chocolate milk. He didn't. He just sat and stared at his green socked feet, and his hands resting in his lap. Apparently even a reprimand as simple and harmless as Pepper's was enough to startle the kid.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. As soon as Tony took care of the dishes, he knelt down by Bruce, elbows resting on his bent knees. Bruce's head turned just slightly towards the kneeling man, but other than that nugatory movement, he stayed in very much the same position. Tony waited for a few seconds before caving. "Bruce, Pepper apologized. I know she's a bit nit-picky, trust me, I know." He winked at the toddler who seemed to fight a smile. "Alright kiddo? How about we get ready for bed hmm? You'll need your energy if you're going to beat mini-golf expert like me." Bruce looked over at him and finally allowed a smile onto his face.

Bruce slid off of his chair and bid goodnight to Pepper. He also offered a breathless apology for his actions. Pepper only ruffled his hair and shooed him on his way. The two males made their way down to Bruce's bedroom. Once inside the much too luxurious room, Bruce waddled into his private bathroom and got changed into the (adorable) duckling pattern onesie Pepper picked out. Originally, both adults had been skeptical that the much to intelligent four year old would wear such a childish garment, but in the end, it turned out to be Bruce's favorite.

Bruce shuffled out of the bathroom, brown eyes drooping and little fists rubbing at them. Tony tucked the toddler in, bid him a goodnight with dreams of science and candy, and went down to his own bedroom. Surprisingly, he was wiped. The toll of the past week had definitely hurt everyone, including the unflappable Tony Stark. He missed sleeping in and long mornings over coffee and eggs, but his top priority was not lazing around, but helping his friend with his predicament. He wasn't about to admit that he actually grew fond of Little Bruce, because Little Bruce, as adorable as he was, was not Dr. Banner and he certainly was not The Incredible Hulk.

Tony musing over his work and his day, pushed open the bedroom door, shocked to find Pepper sitting in bed, clad in only sweat pants and a tank top, watching him with warm green eyes. He padded over to the bed and dropped on his knees on the end of it, crawling up to his girl. Her fingers threaded through his hair as she tugged him into a soft kiss, the first they'd shared in days. He cupped her face with his hands and returned it, but it was brief and over much too soon.

"Not with Bruce just down the hall." Pepper said softly, kissing him once on the shell of his ear. Tony grumbled but agreed. The last thing they needed was to scar the poor thing by having him walk in on them doing the mattress dance. He nuzzled his way underneath the covers and pulled Pepper to him in a hug. She tucked her head of red hair under his chin and thumbed the arc reactor through his t-shirt. 'You didn't change out of your jeans." She said softly, the rough fabric rubbing against the soft cotton of her sweatpants.

"Too tired." Tony yawned, hands tightening on Pepper's back. Since Bruce got here, they hadn't been able to do much of anything out of respect for the tender life among them, but it stressed Tony out. He figured this is what it must be like to be a parent; sacrificing sex to make sure your kid doesn't get scarred for life. Tony huffed and ordered JARVIS to turn off the lights. This wasn't fair. Bruce wasn't even his kid! _He's Hawkeye's _, was Tony's last coherent thought before he slipped away.

The drive to Put Put's was long and slow due to the morning traffic of New York. Tony had insisted on driving, saying it was a good bonding experience for the three of them. He wasn't above taking a private jet out of New York City just to have it land five minutes later, but he thought this would be a little less intimidating to Bruce. He figured the city was probably menacing enough for a kid that grew up in Ohio without taking a big ol' private jet.

However, it was evident that Bruce didn't like the reckless driving, loud car horns, and people that ran across the street, throwing caution to the wind. Tony and Pepper paid it no mind, for Tony was the careless driver and honker and Pepper on more than one occasion could be seen weaving, on foot, through a thicket of traffic in an attempt to get to the other side. Bruce knew this if their stories were anything to go by.

"Why did the Pepper cross the road?" Tony laughed as he pulled in front of an irate taxi driver. A horn was promptly laid. Pepper smacked Tony's arm, unamused by his attempt at a joke.

"To get to Starbucks?" Bruce asked, giggling. Tony shot a big smile over his shoulder at the toddler and raised and eyebrow.

"That's true, little man." Tony stopped to let and elderly lady cross the road.

"No, okay, I'm not _addicted _to Starbucks." Pepper argued with a smile on her face. Tony cocked an eyebrow at her and looked pointedly down at the ice coffee from Starbucks in her hand. "Alright, you win." She conceded, taking a sip of coffee. Tony let a simper spread across his face.

They drove on, Tony attempted to sing '100 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall' but was informed by Pepper that it wasn't appropriate for Bruce. So, they talked and laughed (mostly Pepper and Tony with the occasional giggle from the backseat) and were out of the city in the record time of an hour and a half. It was kind of weird how drastically it changed. Sure, there was still traffic because they were right on the border of the city, but the outlying lands almost seemed like a forest in comparison to the liveliness of the city. There was a lot foliage, for one, and the ground was a nice layer of green grass. Trees and shrubs of all varieties sprouted from the ground, some bearing fruit or flowers. There were houses, albeit a lot smaller than in the city, but there were. They were nice, decent sized and often had gardens and fences surrounding them. It looked like something out of the Little House On The Prairie. Some people were outside, basking in the morning glow or tending to their gardens. Dogs and children were also playing together in the lawns, sometimes big and sometimes small.

It wasn't too much more of this until they reached a little town with more cars and buildings than trees and grass. There were resident homes, schools, a park, and a church. It was sort of quaint in comparison to New York City, but by no means country. Tony drove slowly, mindful of cats running across the road and of pedestrians who happened to be much more cautious than their city neighbors.

"Look, there it is." Pepper pointed out her window at a sign half hidden by overgrown trees. _Put Put's Mini-Golf Course _it read in faded white letters. Tony grimaced at the low end appearance of the sign. He pulled up the long, winding road to the void parking lot. He put the car in park and glanced over at Pepper.

"I feel like I live in the ghetto." He mused idly. Pepper gave him a withered glare and pushed open her door.

"Stop complaining. I know it isn't first-class, but a little modesty might do you good." She opened the door for Bruce and he slid out, his light up Spiderman sneakers glowing as he landed.

"Brucey should experience the best life has to offer." Tony retorted snidely, but a smile danced across his lips nonetheless. "Modesty," -he turned down to Bruce- "is overrated." Bruce hid a giggle behind his clenched fist. Pepper shot Tony another withered glare as she slammed the car door. Tony passed her the keys and she jingled them as they made their way towards the dilapidated shack in the middle of the parking lot.

The building was, quite literally, the cabin the middle of the woods. Its roof sagged, shingles hanging off of it. The walls were moldy and patched with duct tape in places, and the paint was chipped and peeling. The single window was foggy and small, scotch tape ultimately holding it together. Even Pepper couldn't hide the grimace on her face as they approached it. Bruce slunk behind Tony, apparently getting bad vibes from the ominous, neglected "office".

"Would you do the honors-?" Tony asked his girlfriend, gesturing towards the shack. Pepper opened her mouth to argue but decided against it for Bruce's sake. If she got pulled inside and her throat torn out by a rapid werewolf, it would probably scar Bruce less than if Tony was.

She sighed and walked up the groaning, moist and splintering steps. She felt like her tennis sneakers would break through the rotten wood at any moment. The air smelt dank, of wood and old paint and musk. Ferns, shrubs, and weeds cropped up around the shack and steps, creating it a tedious affair to make her way through the thicket to the door. Tony watched her with mild amusement.

"Sure you don't want to go someplace...cheery?" He called. Pepper snorted audibly.

"Even local businesses need customers." She countered.

"Billionaire customers? Superhero customers?"

"Shut-up Tony." Pepper commanded as she stood face to face with the caved door. Her knuckles hesitated against the rotting wood. She sucked in a lung full of musk and rapped her knuckles against the door. The knock echoed for a few seconds. Silence followed.

"See? No one's home." Tony spun on his heel, Bruce right behind him when the door was flung open. An elderly man, with the beginning of a beer gut, a wiry white beard, a little shorter than Santa Claus's and wispy shoulder hair greeted the startled redhead.

"Welcome to Put Put's!" He greeted enthusiastically. "I never get any business." Tony bit his tongue and groaned at his own bad luck. It was a true wonder why the man never got customers.

"Uh…" Pepper stuttered awkwardly. The man smiled over her head at Bruce and Tony and ushered her inside. Bruce and Tony walked up the fragile stairs and made a wide berth around the grungy man. Bruce's hand gripped his a little tighter as they bypassed him.

"If I were you I'd be scared too." Tony reassured the four year old. Bruce allowed a smile to dance across his face, but it quickly evaporated at the sound of the old door creaking shut and the man shuffling behind his makeshift counter.

Golf clubs lined the walls, and multicolored balls were all stuffed into a large coffee canister. The place hadn't seen a decent cleaning in years. Dust bunnies were so thick in spots Tony couldn't see the floor, the lightening was supplied by a single lamp in the corner, and mold blanketed the cracks in the ceiling. The "office" smelt thickly of smoke, old cologne, mildew, rotting wood, and dirt. Something like a dive bar, Tony mused.

"Can we use your course?" Pepper asked. The old man simply nodded and gestured to the canister and then the clubs.

"Ten dollars for an hour. Just choose your ball and the appropriate club size," He smiled down at Bruce. "And for your son, the kiddy clubs are over on the far wall." Pepper smiled and thanked him, but Tony held up a hand.

"Bruce isn't actually our son," He corrected. Pepper groaned and rolled her eyes. "He's our nephew. He's Clint Barton's son, actually." The old man's face showed no sign of recognition. In fact, he didn't seem to recognize the world renowned billionaire A.K.A Tony Stark A.K.A Iron Man standing right across from him.

"My apologies." The man said. Tony waved him off and pulled a twenty out of his wallet.

"Let's do two hours. Bruce has to learn to live…spontaneously." Tony smirked and passed the man the twenty. He smiled even widely than before, showing off chipped teeth and dirty gums.

"Thank you sir. Have fun!" He eyed the twenty and beamed. Tony really wished he would close his mouth. Apparently so did Bruce, if the kid burying his face into his thigh was anything to go by. Pepper had already gathered the clubs; one with a black handle for herself, one with a red handle for Tony, and a little one with a green handle for Bruce. She also chose matching balls.

They made their way through the parking lot to the beginning of the course. The 'start here' sign was hand off of its wooden post and looked really pathetic, splattered with mold and rotting around the edges. The course itself looked fairly decent compared to the monstrosity (or third class living) they'd experienced so far. The grass was a little overgrown, and wasn't fake. Tony wasn't sure if that was a plus or not. The flags marking the hole were a little worn and foxed, but were still more intact than the office. The sand pits were a little too steep and were a dark brown rather than tan, but other than that the course seemed well enough.

Bruce was the first up to play, since he was the youngest. Naturally, because he'd never played before, Tony had to help him with his position.

"Alright, bud. You've ever seen Tiger on T.V?" The toddler shook his head and Tony frowned. It was strange the kid was so…un-versed in the world. "Okay…" Tony drawled for a minute. He stepped behind Bruce and leaned over him. He wasn't even thinking about it when he grasped Bruce's wrists and angled them the right way so the club he was holding was facing the golf ball.

The four year old let out a startled gasp and twisted away from him. His face was red and little tears glistened in his eyes. He gripped the golf club as if it was a weapon. His knuckles were white around the handle.

Pepper shared a bewildered look with Tony and moved to comfort Bruce, but the toddler only watched her fearfully. He turned so his back was to the golf course and he could face both adults. Tony moved forward too, crouching and gazing at Bruce with a furrowed brow.

"Are you okay, Bruce?" Pepper asked slowly, softly. Her hands were slightly raised in mock surrender, but Bruce still regarded her warily. He, however, seemed more adamant to avoid Tony. It each silent step the billionaire took, Bruce shied away and angled the club threatening towards him.

"I think his caveman instincts are acting up. He's going to club me," Tony joked tensely, hoping to alleviate the tension. Bruce wasn't impressed by the pun. In fact, it only served to scare him more. He was trembling, and his face was drawn and pale. Tony hadn't gripped his wrists hard, just as hard as he'd ever gripped anyone's wrists.

"Maybe we should just go back to the car." Pepper suggested as she laid her club down by Bruce's golf ball. Tony looked over at her and nodded his agreement. The adults straightened from their crouches and Bruce warily watch them inch backwards towards the car.

"Coming, bud?" Tony asked, beckoning with his hands. Bruce stared at him for a moment, but let the club fall from his hands onto the ground with a small 'thump'. He started over to them, eyes averted and hands wringing together. As Tony opened the backseat for him to get in, he knew he was never going to forget the fear he saw in Bruce's eyes.

"So…I think we should check mini-golfing off of our to-do list." Tony mused as he munched on a grilled cheese sandwich. Bruce had retreated into his room the instant they got back and had yet to emerge two hours later.

Pepper plopped down on the couch next to him, her own grilled cheese in hand. "I suppose we should," She agreed absentmindedly. Since they got back, both avoided talking about the issue at the golf course and instead spent the better part of two hours doing work. For Pepper it was paperwork and for Tony…well he went down to the labs to try and make some more headway into Bruce's condition, but to no avail. His mind was preoccupied with other things anyhow.

It wasn't until ten minutes ago once he got back to the living room that he decided they needed to confront the elephant in the room. Pepper had reluctantly agreed and made them grilled cheese to smooth the conversation a bit.

"He looked genuinely scared, Tony. Just that small touch sent him fleeing." Pepper sighed, taking a bit out of her sandwich. Tony chewed thoughtfully, but he was quickly losing his appetite.

"I know. But it's not like he hasn't touched me before." Tony countered. Pepper chewed her lip.

"But this is one of the first times you initiated contact, yes?"

"Yes…well I don't know. I think so…no. Oh," Tony snapped his fingers. "The first time I touch him was when he was just in a pile of clothes."  
"I meant when he was aware that you were touching him."

"Oh then…maybe." Tony finished off his sandwich and sucked one cheesy finger into his mouth. Pepper allowed herself a miniscule smile.  
"Touch. It's something about touch," Pepper pondered, eyes narrowed in thought. "Tony," –her voice was a notch darker and more hesitant than it was before- "I think we need Fury."

"Are you out of your collective mind? Has your train of thoughts just like…collided with another train? God just hearing you say that was like watching a goddamn car crash," Tony huffed. Pepper raised her hands.

"Okay, okay. I get it. It's not ideal, and personally I'd rather not talk to him about…well mini-Bruce, but Tony…we can't handle him by ourselves! You have barely been able to do research between entertaining Bruce and all the work you already have to do. S.H.I.E.L.D might be our only option."

"What about the other Avengers? You know what Fury will do to Bruce, especially while he's all little and meek and stuff. We don't even know if the Hulk is still around." Tony argued.

"Exactly Tony. Exactly. We don't know if the Hulk is still in him. We don't know anything about him or his parents. We don't know why he doesn't like to be touched, we don't know why he seems to be so disconnected from the world. And what about that nightmare you told me about? Most kids would've come right into the adults' room and cried their little heads off. Not him though. Tony, not him.

"That's totally disregarding the fact that none of the other Avengers will be around for at least another week, or if we're lucky a half of a week. Tony, we can't do this. We can't risk him being stuck like this, or not getting a cure or screwing him up somehow in the meantime."

"I don't want to talk to Nick. Or to anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D, not including Natasha and Clint, obviously. They already know anyhow. And Steve promised he wouldn't tell, and Thor…he's off planet. And do you even have any idea how much Bruce would freak if he saw Nick? That whole one eye thing has me little on edge…" Tony drawled before standing up. "No. We can't go to him. Bruce is in a strange place and he's finally warming up to us. We can't just drag him down to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters and leave him there."

"I wasn't saying that we should leave him there," Pepper sighed. She shook her head exasperated and crossed her arms. "We're not experts in pediatric care, Tony. How long is he going to be stuck like this? Why is he like this? Do you have any idea how much Fury would freak if he saw Bruce? Or if someone else saw Bruce and told him? We can't just keep this buried. It doesn't work like that."

"Pepper, he's my friend. Hell, he's my best friend. I can't-" Tony closed his eyes and shook his head. "I fuck up and I get a good slap on the wrist with a ruler. Bruce fucks up and he is detained and questioned and put in a cage and treated like an animal. Worse than an animal. Ross might come in. Might just gain custody of Bruce, like he's some sort of weapon. Like his body is property. And then what? Do you know what they do to weapons that have outlived their use?"

Pepper glanced down at her hands in her lap. "The weapons are taken offline." She answered quietly.

"And then they dissect him. Because to them it is just some game; some big game of manhunt. Some big game of manhunt that would result and certain death for the loser. Now, Bruce has gone and accidently de-aged himself. Now he's helpless. Now he is just a four year old boy with a whole army and secret organization constantly watching him. Fury can get to him now, Ross can get to him now. If we expose Bruce to the world as a little kid with a brain too big for his body and a heart at least twice that, he might as well murder him ourselves." Tony breathed deeply and paced. He could feel the rumble in his chest from his arc reactor. Deep breaths often disagreed with him.  
"How do you know that?"

"I just know." Tony snapped, storming off. Pepper watched from her place on the couch, sandwich abandoned. She supposed that she should go and try to talk to Bruce now. It wasn't…well it wasn't nice to leave him alone all day. She figured Tony would go cool off with a drink and some lab work. It wouldn't be good for him to talk to Bruce in his currently riled up condition.

She picked herself up off the couch and smoothed down her big white t-shirt Tony let her borrow. More like borrow and never give back, she mused idly as she made her way down the hall. She couldn't hear Bruce…talking to himself, which was good she supposed and she couldn't hear any muffled cries, which was also a plus, however she couldn't think of what the kid could have been doing all this time.

She knocked lightly on the door. "Bruce?" She called hesitantly. No response. "Bruce?" She tried again, easing open the door. Just as she did so, she heard footsteps pounding down the hall towards her. She whirled around just in time to see Tony panting, hands gesturing crazily.

"JARVIS," He wheezed and made a cutting gesture over his throat. Oh fuck. Pepper pushed open Bruce's door.

The computer was turned on, but it was just on the desktop. However, in the room there was no little boy. "Bruce!" Pepper screamed, peeking inside the bathroom. No kid. She crawled on her hands and knees and checked under the bed. No kid. Her heart hammered as she straightened and shook her head at Tony. He closed his eyes.

"JARVIS was hacked into and put on mute. I think…well I'm gonna venture a guess our resident genius, well the other resident genius, managed to override his systems and escape while we were left blind."

"You don't say?" Pepper growled voice laced with sarcasm. "He couldn't have left the tower, right? So, he must be somewhere…JARVIS, locate Bruce please." The AI seemed to sigh.

"I'm sorry Miss Potts, Dr. Banner has, evidently, left the building."


	6. Our (Broken) Moral Compasses

**Note: Nothing is mine and unbetaed**

Tony had never felt more like a failure in his life. This was saying something too. His father never seemed impressed with him. It was Howard Stark and Stark Industries and the little genius boy in the background of every cover magazine. He got into MIT at fifteen, got on the front page of one or two issues until his father came out with some new weapon, shiny and glorious and with enough destructive power to wipe out Tokyo. Then nobody cared about the fifteen year old that got accepted into MIT. Nobody cared how many assessments he passed with flying colors or how many engines and robots he built. They weren't military grade, they weren't crafted at the hands of Howard Stark, and he was not his father. He was Anthony Stark, genius boy. Son of a genius man. A shadow to him.

But nothing in his childhood came close to making Tony feel as much like a failure as right now.

He felt like shit. He felt like utter shit. He looked like shit too. He was shit. That was all there was to it. Because right now there was a four year old boy roaming the streets of New York City at night and it was all Tony's fault. Anything that happened to him would be all Tony's fault. And that was why he was failure.

He was a failure because he had to call in Fury. He had to tell him everything. He got to see the anger in that singular black eye burn like embers. He got to watch Fury call for his agents, call for Clint and Natasha to get their asses back to New York ASAP. He got to watch the trust slowly installed in Bruce fall away like a house being torn down. This was all his fault. The big old cage on the Helicarrier looming in his mind. Bruce's life, the one where he was a grownup, was probably blown to shit now. And Bruce would never forgive him. He'd spent too long running, hiding, and fighting just to stay alive, and Tony was so fucking stupid that he took it all away. This place, this tower, Bruce called home would feel a hell of a lot more like a prison when they got him back.

If they got him back.

Scenarios ran through Tony's mind like wildfire. Anything could happen to him, anything. He was defenseless, he was a gazelle in a lion's pride. And this was all another part of Tony's screw-up life. He could see it in Pepper's eyes too. The haunted, guilty look. The way she refused to meet his hazel eyes and she wouldn't even talk to Clint or Natasha. Fury screamed at her too, but after tearing apart the tower for an hour and a half in a desperate, wet-eyed search for Bruce, she was pretty much detached.

Tony knew it was a waste to time to scale the tower top to bottom. JARVIS wasn't wrong, he knew that Bruce was no longer in Stark Tower, but humans sometimes needed physical reassurance. Although, Tony supposed, it wasn't very reassuring that Bruce was no where to be found.

These awful thoughts, guilty and sharp and bitter, ran through Tony's head as he gazed out the rain dotted window in the dark city. Well, the city as dark as it ever got.

Fury was driving, hands clenched tightly around the black steering wheel. Natasha was in the passenger seat, face just as unreadable as always. Tony could see her hands folded in her laps and lips drawn together tightly. Her green eyes were scanning the streets for the sight of a small body racing down the sidewalk. Clint and Pepper were squeezed into the backseat with Tony, Pepper in the middle. Her eyes were puffy from crying, and her hair was an absolute mess. She was ashen and trembling. Tony was sure he looked no better.

Clint looked sorrowful, which was kind of odd. He didn't look pissed off like Fury, or slightly irritated like Natasha, and he certainly didn't look devastated like Tony and Pepper, just...sorrowful. Like he watched The Notebook. His blue eyes were staring out past the rain and fog, at the cars and people and flashing signs. One of his hands was curled on the edge of the seat, fingernails digging slightly into it.

Tony snapped his gaze back out his own window and chomped down on his lower lip. If they didn't find Bruce...Tony didn't want to exercise that scenario. Bruce was an excellent hider, small and silent. But they managed to find him once, in India not all that long ago. They could find him again. The world would never stop searching for Bruce Banner. He was one of those people that could and would slip right through your fingers like water. One of those people who could blend as easily and flawlessly as a shadow. And because he was one of those people, and because everyone knew it was why they were going to find him.

They were going to find him before the other agents. Tony was going to scoop him up in his arms before Nick could even open the car door. He was going to be the first to swipe the wet brown curls from Bruce's little de-aged face and bless whatever God that probably didn't exist out there for this. Then he'd feel Pepper's arms wrap around them both, her hot tears burning into the back of his neck, and her hand brushing the dripping hair out of his face. He would cradle little Bruce to his chest and never let go. He'd promise never to betray his trust again.

Tony was going to find him first.

It was three in the morning when they got the call. Tony hadn't been asleep even though he was all tucked under the covers with the light out. His eyes just kept wandering the dark room, searching for something. Answers maybe. Or maybe reassurance. He could feel Pepper's back pressed against his own, and could hear the hitch in her breath. She wasn't asleep either and she was crying, but he couldn't find it within himself to roll over and comfort her.

Tony couldn't believe that they found him first. He was so shocked in fact that he let his phone fall from his hand and clatter onto the floor. He was already sitting upright, and dressed in jeans and t-shirt, too distressed to change. Pepper asked him what it was, worry lacing her voice. Tony had been so ecstatic that he whipped around and kissed her passionately. Until he realized Bruce was in the hands of SHIELD in a very little form. He also remembered how pissed off all those agents were for having to aimlessly wander the streets in the cold and rain looking for a little kid. And Fury...

Tony spun out of bed, not bothering to pick up the phone. He had plenty anyhow. Pepper rushed after him, calling for him to tell her what happened. Tony couldn't stall. Any moment they could have Bruce carted off to be stuffed away in a cage or lab. He was defenseless like this.

The billionaire yanked on his shoes, not bothering to lace them up. 'Bruce' was the only thing he managed to say to Pepper before her grabbed her hand and pulled her into the elevator.

"I want to see him," Tony demanded coldly, arms crossed as he studied Fury. The man eyed him and shook his head.

"Tony, you already lost him _once _." Fury reminded harshly. Tony felt his lip twitch into an almost snarl.

"I forgot you knew everything about pediatric care, Director." He retorted bitterly. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins, and the silent anger radiating off of Pepper. He knew it wouldn't be long until her anger stopped being silent.

"He's a threat-"

"He's _four _." Tony growled. Fury leveled his glare with Tony.

"Tell me Mr. Stark, do you even know if he's still radioactive? If he is still connected to the Hulk?"

"No, I don't. I've been a little busy trying to get him back to normal to conduct a million different tests on a _child _."

"It seems like that might be a priority though."

"I guess I missed the part where you thought I gave a fuck whether or not our green friend could still show up." Tony bit. Fury rolled his eye and placed both hands on the large table separating the two men.

"He's under observation right now Mr. Stark, and out of your reach. I think your should stick to your Mark suits and robots rather than caring for a de-aged four year old. Our scientists will figure out how to reverse it without your help."

"You can't do that, Mr. Nick. He doesn't trust you-"

"You know nothing about him, Stark. Have you read his file?"

"At great length actually."

"Not everything in written down. You of all people should understand the importance of information. And the secrecy that comes with it."

"As much as I enjoy our little dance, Director, my feet are getting tired." Tony said dryly. Nick clenched his jaw.

"Do you think the Hulk was magically created when Doctor Banner O.D on gamma radiation?"

"Never thought about it all that much. I know how it happened."

"Yes, but the why is important. Everything is tied together, and the universe works in dominoes," Nick began. Tony rolled his eyes and plopped himself down in a chair. Might as well get comfortable. "Everything works in a chain reaction, cause and effect. The Hulk is very much real, that fact exists. However, there is always a cause behind an effect. What you don't know Stark is the cause. You understand the effect. As a self-proclaimed genius-"

"It's not self-proclaimed," Tony interrupted.

"What?"

"Me being a genius. It's been proven."

"As a self-proclaimed genius that likes to ride on horses higher than himself, you should understand this cause effect. Hulk was created long before the accident, Stark, long before. Doctor Banner has been a monster even before that."

"Stop talking about him like that." Pepper shot before Tony could. Fury looked up to the redhead, startled at the sudden anger in her eyes.

"The fact exists, Ms. Potts. Banner has monstrous blood in him. It's not his fault. He's suffered a great extent in his life, long before the accident. I'm not going into the grisly details. I don't have the time. Just know that we're more equipped to handle the situation than you are." Fury tried to take his leave, moving around the table when Tony's hand lashed out and grabbed his arm. The billionaire pulled himself to his feet and stared the director down.

"If you hurt him in _any _way..." The threat went unspoken, but Fury could tell that the man standing across from him was dead serious.

"I won't call Ross and I won't do any unnecessary tests."

"Make that no tests at all." Pepper spoke up again, voice dark. Nick glared at her.

"That's beyond your say, Ms. Potts. You don't have guardianship over him. Neither of you do." Nick jerked his arm free from Tony's grasp and straightened out his trench coat. The director stormed off, boots slapping against the tiled floor.

Tony slumped back down in the chair and let his head fall into his hands. Pepper shuffled over, gently placing her hand on Tony's shoulder. "It's my fault, Pep." Tony said, voice muffled from his hands. She pulled up a chair beside him and squeezed his knee.

"It's not." She reassured. She could hear the anguish in his voice. The rawness of his heart exposed to the world. She knew he was such a good person. Conflicted, yes, but good. He was pegged as someone who only fought for himself, Captain America pointed that out often enough, but he didn't. He risked his life countless times for others, including caring the nuclear weapon into the black hole in the sky to save New York from utter demise.

"If I'd been more careful...Pep," Tony glanced up at her, brow furrowed tightly. "Pep, _why_ ?"

"Why what?"

"When I touched him, why was he so scared? I don't-Pepper it doesn't make any sense. I didn't hurt him..." Tony trailed off, looking down at the lines in his hands. "I didn't hurt him," He repeated in a mumble.

"No," Pepper said, watching Tony's eyes flicker across his palms like they were a map to the answers. "He still doesn't know us very well." Tony was shaking his head, staring at the deeply etched lines in hands intently.

"No, that's not it. Oh-" His voice broke. "Oh," A gust of air left his lungs in a 'whoosh'. "Oh no. Oh no. I think I understand now." Tony shoved back his chair and instantly began pacing. Pepper noticed his face looked drawn and easily two shades paler.

"Tony? Tony what?" She stood up and grabbed his arm to stop his pacing. His hazel brown eyes flickered down to her.

"_ Touch _, Pep." It was all that needed to be said. Pepper felt tears spring into her eyes as she released her boyfriend. She felt her heart splinter in two in sorrow for the boy somewhere in the maze of SHIELD headquarters. She turned away, a sick feeling swirling in the pit of her stomach. Tony wrapped his arms around her in a hug, squeezing her tight to his chest. She could feel each gust of his hot breath against her neck and his wet eyelashes press against her ear lobe.

Natasha had been more than pissed off when she found out about Bruce's disappearance. Initially, when she got the call from Fury, she felt hot flashes of anger all through her body. She thought this was because she and Clint had been in the middle of a mission and she wasn't in the habit of just up and leaving right when things got hot and steamy. However, on the entire jet ride back to New York, she realized she wasn't angry because she'd been called back. She was angry because little Bruce was missing. This startled her for two reasons. 1-Her and Bruce were admittedly not the best of friends. Natasha would be the first to admit that it was more of her own doing that anyone else's. 2- She'd never felt_anger _at someone for letting someone else get lost. She wasn't a soft person, she was tough and cold and detached. That was how she liked it. So what was this flash of protectiveness that blossomed inside her when Fury dropped the bombshell?

As she strode down the SHIELD medical wing hallway, she decided it really didn't matter. Bruce was back and under SHIELD's custody, at least for the time being. Clint had sneaked off to listen to Fury and Tony's meeting and offered to bring her with him. She declined, saying she already knew how it was going to go down. When Clint came back, breathless from running all the way from the meeting room to her office, so to speak, she was right.

She knew Tony was going to blow his cap and Pepper was going to match him step for step. She knew this. Everyone knew this. Maybe that's why it was so damn retarded to keep Bruce in SHIELD's custody. Even adult Bruce felt awkward among SHIELD personnel and the only person he really grew close to was Tony. From what she'd been told, de-aged Bruce wasn't all that different.

Natasha strode down the hallway, legs taking wide strides. Some people thought she walked so quickly it looked weird, but she was a woman with a destination and there was no time for baby steps anymore. She never met conscience little Bruce before, but maybe she could arrange something so that he'd be back under Tony's wing. God knows it was much safer with the billionaire than with SHIELD.

Clint had even helped her devise a plan. Sneaking the kid out would be the easy part. Keeping his disappearance a secret from Fury was quite another matter. Natasha had influence amongst the SHIELD agents and they'd listen to her if she asked them to, but she also knew how loyal some could be to Fury. Which was slightly admiral as long as they weren't just ass kissers looking for an easy promotion. That wasn't the way to find it, Natasha knew.

She turned the hallway into the top security wing of medical. She wasn't expecting there to be a barrier of at least a dozen SHIELD agents blocking her path. "Step aside," She commanded two agents directly blocking her. One was a tall, scrawny man with wispy blond hair and hard blue eyes. He looked like a skinny, mean version of Captain American, Natasha mused.

"Sorry, Ms. Romanoff. Director Fury said no one, and I quote _no one _was to enter Dr. Banner's room." The blond man said. The woman next to him was only slightly shorter with chopped off brown hair and murky brown eyes.

"And Dr. Banner's room is just down the hall I suppose." Natasha noted. The female agent shrugged.

"It is."

"I did request that both of you part to make way for me," Natasha reminded. The woman's eyes narrowed and the man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as if he was dealing with a belligerent child.

"Director Fury-"

"i understand," Natasha snapped. The man's jaw clicked shut. "Surely that rule isn't applicable to his top agent and an Avenger, is it?"

"He said no Avengers whatsoever." The bold woman interrupted. Natasha turned her icy green eyes on the little bitch, who was smirking as if she had anything to be pleased with.

"Did he now?"

"He did. Now we'll have to ask you to turn around and leave before we call him up here." The woman said. Natasha snickered, but could see no alternative. She spun on her heel without another word and stalked out of the hallway. Her and Fury would be having a long, hard talk.

Clint paced the length of the room while he and the stony Natasha waited for Fury to come out of his office and honor them with his presence. Natasha told him all about how they were forbidden to go and visit Bruce, and it pulled every one of his strings. They decided to keep it very low-key so they didn't alarm Pepper or Tony, but both of them seemed to catch on and were off cursing Fury back at Stark Tower. Clint didn't have his doubts that it would take Tony long to find a round about way to visiting Bruce.

The door to Fury's office opened and a young agent hurried out, hair a disheveled mess as she clutched her tablet to her chest and rushed past them. "I suppose I can make time for you two." Fury said as he stood by the door frame.

"Missed you too." Clint deadpanned. Natasha shoved past the both of them, arms crossed, into the office. Clint trailed behind her and Fury shut the door. The director faced the door, sighed, and then turned around.

"Well?" He asked sharply.

"Not seeing Bruce, let's start with that," Natasha said coldly. Clint couldn't recall a time where her voice was any darker. "You _know _he must be scared, and confused, and the only person he's grown close to is Tony."

"He's too dangerous. My job is to keep people safe, not to make sure they're comfortable."

"He's a child!" Clint exclaimed, flailing his arms. Fury fixed him with his trademark glare.

"He's is most certainly not a child. He screwed up something and got himself de-aged, but Banner is most certainly _not _a child."

"He has the memory of one. He thinks he is. He looks like one." Clint argued.

"The Hulk may still be in him-"

"And if he is he's gonna be less than half the size of the real Hulk. Probably shorter than yourself, Director." Natasha interrupted.

"Exactly," Clint smirked. Fury gestured angrily towards the door.

"Get out. My mind has been made. I don't _care _how pissed off Potts or Stark are. I don't care how pissed off your are, or how pissed off Rogers will be when he gets back. Now out." Fury jabbed his finger at the door again. Clint shared a look with Natasha and they both stalked out. There was no point in arguing. He wasn't going to change his mind. He was stubborn like that. Tony could get past security and Natasha and Clint could easily take out a dozen guard agents before they knew what hit them. Fury was just going to make them all the more determined to do so.

"I feel so bad." Pepper's voice was hallow as she lied on the couch. Tony was sitting on the coffee table across from her, elbows resting on his knees as his eyes studied her face. "How could we not see it before?" The question had been asked a million times in their heads from SHIELD H.Q to Stark Tower, but neither had the courage to ask or answer it. Tony hadn't felt so dumb since his father was alive.

"I don't know," He answered simply. He could see it now; every shy smile and flinching away from reaching hands. The hesitancy, the lack of knowledge about the outside world. It all fell into place like some twisted puzzle. Bruce didn't ever talk about his father, and Tony had a feeling he knew why. He understood better than some people about daddy issues, but the difference between himself and Bruce was that his father never paid any attention to him while Bruce's clearly spent too much.

"That poor soul," Pepper said mournfully. Tony only let his eyes fall to the floor. Guy had been through so much, so much more than Tony anticipated. Probably so much more than anyone had. Now he was being held captive by strange, domineering people. If Tony was in his position, he didn't know how he'd react.

"Sir, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are on their way up." JARVIS reported. Tony nodded.

"Thanks, JARVIS." Before he could even finish, the ding of the elevator opening resounded through the room and out stepped Clint and Natasha. Pepper sat upright and combed her fingers through her hair, Tony didn't even bother to straighten his slouched back.

"We tried," Clint announced, not beating around the bush. "He's stubborn as a mule." Pepper sighed and let her eyes wander.

"There are only a dozen agents keeping us out. It'd be easy enough to break in and get him back." Natasha proposed. Clint made his way over to the couch and lowered himself down beside Pepper. Natasha remained standing.

"I could make them blind. They got the firewall of a high school." Tony said, a plan formulating in his mind.

"It won't be-I mean no one will get hurt, right?" Pepper spoke up, ever the moral compass of their operations.

"Nothing except Fury's ego." Tony assured as he stood up.

"Clint and I can take out the guards and retrieve Bruce if you and Pepper make sure the alarms are disabled and the video cameras shut down." Natasha said. Tony nodded.

"It would work."

"Hate to be a party pooper, but how are we going to keep Bruce's abduction away from Fury?" Clint asked the question everyone was wondering. An uneasy silence settled in the room before Natasha snapped her fingers.

"Coerce them." She said. "Everyone knows I don't bluff." Tony smirked at the devious light in Black Widow's eyes.

"How did I know you'd say that?" Clint and Tony asked at the same time. Pepper allowed a smile to leak onto her face. Maybe this would work. Maybe they could get Bruce back, turn him back into his older self, and Fury would never know until Bruce was re-aged. Then Pepper wouldn't feel so bad.

Except it wasn't as simple as that. She knew Tony needed time, and a lot of it, to figure out how to reverse the changes made to Bruce. She also knew that she knew more about Bruce than she should, and having him 'grow up' so to speak was not going to be simple. It would be awkward for a very long time. And that was if the unthinkable didn't happen; the effects being irreversible. If _that _happened...Pepper shuddered. She didn't know what they'd do.


	7. Wet Napkins and The Plan

**Warnings: Swearing, minor action**

**Note: I own nothing and this is unbetaed (Do I seriously have to say this every chapter?)**

_Six o'clock in the morning_

Tony woke up, eyes bleary from sleep as his alarm went off. "JARVIS, cut it out." He grumbled as he tossed the covers aside. Pepper rolled onto her back and gazed up at him. "You ready?" He asked, helping her out of bed. She kicked aside the pesky covers and nodded.

"Lets get him back." Together they went to the kitchen, poured themselves a cup of coffee, Tony grabbed some of Thor's leftover Poptarts and Pepper grabbed an uncooked bagel and together they made their way down to the lab. Honestly, Tony didn't need Pepper to accompany him, but he knew she needed to feel like she was participating somehow. That's probably why Natasha brought Clint along to take out and coerce the agents guarding Bruce.

_Seven Thirty AM_

Tony has bypassed all of SHIELD's security with ease, fingers flying across the hologram like nobody's business. Pepper stands from afar, muttering words of encouragement went the program unexpectedly halts from the firewall. It doesn't usually take long for Tony to maneuver around it, like a dressage horse at the Olympics. As soon as he turns all of the video cameras offline and disabled (and muted, for good measure) all of the alarms, he tells Pepper to give Clint and Natasha the green light. She leans over his shoulder and snaps a picture of the security breach and sends it to Natasha's phone. Tony then turns around and kisses her for a halting second. This was going to work.

_Eight o'clock in the morning_

Natasha and Clint are craftily making their way down the ventilation system of SHIELD medical. Natasha's tight catsuit is driving her crazy and riding up in all the wrong places from being cramped in, but Clint seems at ease. He makes his way through the ventilation system like a lab rat through a maze. He's done it a million times. His quiver is strapped to his back and the end of it occasionally smacked Natasha in the face, causing her scowl to etch even deeper onto her face. She was a spy and was used to lurking, but she preferred alleyways and shadows to tight, enclosed vents liable to give out under her weight at any moment.

"Close now." Clint muttered as he turned and crawled a few more paces forward. He peered down through one of the vents and saw the heads of the SHIELD agents guarding Bruce's personal wing. He looked over his shoulder at Natasha. "We're here," He inched around the vent, trying his hardest not to bang a joint into one of the walls and cause a disruption. At the very least Natasha was smaller than him and could fit better.

She peered down through the vent and pulled out one gas grenade. It would explode silently and fill the air with a clear, noxious fume to knock out the agents. She motioned to Clint and he passed her a bow string with a magnet tied to it. She shook her head at the sloppy piece of equipment, but snapped the magnet on the gas grenade and the magnet on the bow string together. She sat aside the grenade and they both went to work on unscrewing the vent as silently as possible and lifting it up. Clint hugged the metal to his chest and scooted backwards. Natasha lifted the grenade and slowly lowered it to the ground by the bow string. She released the string only when the grenade was sitting safely on the ground and out of sight.

Clint watched the grenade rest on the ground as he fumbled with the clicker attached to his belt. He got it undone and hit the little glowing blue button to detonate the grenade. They both saw the clip pop open. On cue, they both took out faint gray handkerchiefs and covered their mouths and noses with them. Natasha's green eyes flickered up to Clint's. Her eyes glowed with accomplishment and his twinkled with a smirk.

_Eight Ten AM_

Natasha swung herself down from the vent once the last agent was thoroughly conked out. She landed almost silently, like as cat, beside the grenade. She picked it up and passed it back to Clint, who landed much less gracefully. He took the grenade and clipped it to his belt. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the passed out agents and sent it to Pepper along with the text _'Operation Turd In The Punch Bowl successful' _.

Clint ushered her along by jerking his head down the hall. Together they jogged, peaking in windows to see if Bruce was in the room. It wasn't until they came to the end of the hall and peeked in did they realize the kid was being even more mistreated than they originally thought.

The room was made of metal, all four walls a glistening steel. There was a single bench, not even padded, in the center of the room and a small body was curled up on it. The boy was dressed in a dull blue jumpsuit, he was trembling, and his hair was sweaty and shadowing most of his face. Natasha peered through the tiny cutout window and could see tear tracks caked down his cheeks.

Clint's face twisted into a near snarl at the sight. His hand instantly went to the doorknob, but it was locked. There was a slot for a key card, but Clint already knew neither his nor Natasha's would work. The only one that would work would be Fury's.

"Use that microscope camera arrow thingy." Natasha suggested, not taking her eyes off of Bruce. Clint nodded and pulled the arrow out of his quiver. The end of the arrow, where the arrowhead should be, was instead a little camera and robotic arms. This particular arrow was designed by Tony, for missions that required manually hacking their way through a door.

Clint bent so he was eye level with the key card slot and slowly slid the camera into the slot. He peered at the little screen that showed the inside of the lock and tilted the arrow so the camera revealed the lock mechanics of the door. Attached to the side of the arrow was a small black box with two buttons; one red and one blue. The blue button operated the left robotic arm and the red button operated the right. Using his forefinger and middle finger, Clint managed to get the robotic arms around the latch. Of course this wasn't without a little trial and error and a string of curses that would've made a pirate blush.

"Did you get it?" Natasha questioned as she finally yanked her eyes from Bruce to the top of Clint's head. The archer was chewing on his lower lip, his blue eyes honed in on the screen. He gave a few sharp tugs on the arrow and the click of the door being unlocked resounded through the empty hallway.

"Yup." He smirked up at her and stepped away, pulling open the door with him. The room was colder than they thought it would be. And now Bruce was sitting upright, brown eyes glassy with tears as he gazed at them. His skinny knees were drawn protectively to his chest and his cheeks were flushed a Santa Claus red.

Clint bent down to appear less threatening to the youth. He placed his camera arrow on the floor and raised both hands. "Hey now, bud. You don't need to be afraid of us. We're here to bail you out." Bruce's sniffled as he curled closer in on himself. "He's fucking terrified." Clint hissed up to Natasha. She looked at him and walked forward slowly. Bruce eyed her warily, inching away when she was in touching distance.

"You remember Tony, Bruce? He's really scared for you, and so is Pepper. You had them worried. We aren't going to hurt you, I promise." She dropped into a crouch. "No one is going to hurt you, 'kay? You don't want to worry your mom, do you?" This had Bruce shake his head a little. Natasha allowed an inkling of a smile to seep onto her face. "Alright then," She straightened and held out her hand. Bruce looked at her hand as if it might snap at him. Timidly, though, he reached out and placed his pale, tiny one in hers.

From afar, Clint watched with amazement. He'd never seen Natasha charm someone like she just did. She was very black and white. Get in and get out. Threats and blackmail and all that fun stuff. Never had he seen her show tenderness to reach a desired outcome. Unable to pass up the opportunity, he pulled out his phone and took a picture of Natasha holding Bruce's hand. He would have some blackmail of his own now.

Bruce slid off of the bench, socked feet hitting the floor softly. "He's cold," Natasha said as she gazed down at the trembling boy.

"That's not a surprise, it's freezing in here." Clint shivered and stood up. Bruce half scooted behind Natasha's leg, and he noticed his hand grip hers tighter. "I'm Clint, by the way. And this is Natasha. We're your guardian angels."

"Knock it off, Clint." Natasha scowled as he led Bruce out of the room. Clint huffed and followed her out.

Neither of them expected for the dozen SHIELD agents to be marching down the hall towards them, anger evident in each and every one of their eyes.

"_ Shit _..." Clint breathed. Natasha's head whipped around to look at him.

"Take him." Natasha demanded, voice dark and serious. She passed Bruce over to him, who let out a little cry of surprise at being manhandled. Clint wrestled Bruce into his arm as he cradled him to his chest. Natasha squared her shoulders and rested her hand on the butt of her gun. "Go." She commanded. Bruce's little hands pressed futilely against Clint's shoulders and chest, but the archer's arms were wrapped tightly around the kids knees and back. He wanted to argue, to tell her that he'd take the fall with her, but he knew she wasn't going to give up like that. She might kill them, might fly them off to some remote island to die of loneliness and starvation. Clint didn't know. All he knew was that he had a duty to little Bruce right now. And to Tony and to Pepper.

Clint clutched the kid to him as he ran, Natasha distracting the agents as best as she could. Bruce, realizing escape was pointless and impossible, hugged himself to Clint's chest as best as he could. Clint was lucky the kid was as light as feather or else his weight might drag him down. He didn't hear gunshots or screams of anguish so he figured Natasha must be attempting to be civil.

He lugged Bruce down the hall and towards the nearest exit he saw. Luckily, there were no wandering agents so he got by unnoticed. As soon as he was outside, he made a bee line for the nearest taxi.

_Nine o'clock in the morning_

"Sir, Agent Barton is on his way up. It would appear he also has Doctor Banner with him." JARVIS informed. Tony's head jerked up and a huge grin split open his face. Pepper let out a relieved tense laugh, clapping her hands together. Tony spun around and pulled her into a bear hug. Pepper's fingers laced in the fine, short hairs on the back of Tony's head, face burying into the side of Tony's neck. The billionaire's hands tightened in her white blouse. They found him. They got him. It was fine now.

Pepper was the first to pull away from the hug. "And Fury will never find out." She said, a wide smile on her face. Tony shook his head and kissed her hard. Before pulling away he muttered 'he'll never find out.' He pulled back and grabbed her hand, dragging the redhead behind him.

They were outside the elevator when it dinged and Clint stepped out, a little boy clenched in his arms. Bruce's skinny arms were flung around the archer's neck, little legs wrapped tightly around Clint's torso. The blondish man supported the kid by wrapping one hand around his waist and the other gripping the back of his knee.

Clint looked slightly flustered and out of breath, but he was smiling at the beaming faces of his fellow Avengers. Pepper and Tony watched as Bruce slowly peered away Clint's neck. He craned his head over his shoulder and looked at Tony and Pepper. The slightly terrified look in his eyes seemed to nearly evaporate at the sight of Tony and Pepper.

Tony was the first to go in, hands tugging Bruce from Clint's arms. Tony gripped the child to his chest, fingers tightening in the back of the blue jumpsuit. Pepper flung her arms around both of them, laughing quietly into Bruce's shoulder. Clint gazed on, a soft smile on his face. Bruce was definitely in better hands now. He'd be safe until they found out how to reverse this little mess. Naturally his thoughts wandered to Natasha and he couldn't help the twinge of worry that filled his mind. He knew the agents would never hurt Natasha, but Fury would have her ass if he found out. Clint just...he just didn't know what would happen to her.

Pepper seemed to sense his distress as she pulled away from the rejoicing Tony. She placed one hand on Clint's shoulder. "Hey, how did things go down over there?" She asked quietly. Tony peeked up from Bruce's neck. The kid still had his face buried in Tony's. The billionaire nodded once at Pepper and Clint before lugging Bruce to the kitchen, presumably to get him something to eat.

"No muss no fuss." Clint reassured. Pepper saw right through the poorly fabricated lie.

"C'mon, Clint." She urged. The archer's eyes flickered up to hers.

"The agents woke up sooner than they should have. Natasha had to stay behind and do something about them," Clint gestured vaguely with his hands. "She did something. She told me to take Bruce and go, so I did." Pepper patted his shoulder.

"I know that couldn't have been easy, but if anyone can convince a dozen SHIELD agents to sew their mouths shut, it's Natasha." Pepper smiled and Clint laughed.

"You know it," He let a short silence drag out. "Go to them, I know you were worried." Clint nodded towards the kitchen. Muted sounds of dishes clanging and Tony and Bruce's laughs could be heard. Pepper smiled and looked over her shoulder. She looked back at Clint and nodded.

"As soon as you catch sight of Natasha, you send her over here. Tell her I owe her one." Pepper smiled again and skipped to the kitchen. Almost immediately, Clint heard a sharp bout of her laughter. He turned on his heel and gazed back inside the elevator.

"Ah, fuck it." He turned around and jogged to the kitchen after Pepper. He peeked his head around the door frame and saw what a disaster the Stark kitchen had become in a matter of minutes. Bowls and spoons lay in scattered places across the floor, flour was spotted all over the kitchen counters and walls, an open bag of chocolate chips was split all over the counter and some even rolled on the floor. Bruce was propped up on the counter, feet swinging and flour dusting his face white. He was still in his blue jumpsuit, but now it was sprinkled with flour and sugar and other cookie baking substances. Tony was furiously trying to mix something that should be cookie dough, but it all stuck to the spoon like peanut butter. Pepper was attempting to organize the kitchen; picking up the dishes and sweeping the flour off the counter onto the palm of her hand, but every time she made a dent either Tony dropped an egg on the floor or knocked the baking soda back over.

"Legolas! Get your feathery ass over here and mix this!" Tony gestured at the bowl he stepped away from. The billionaire turned and pulled himself up on the counter next to Bruce. He looked down at the curly mop of hair. "Hey, don't disappear like that again. You really had us worried." Bruce turned his dark eyes up to Tony's and blushed a little.

"I'm sorry, Tony." Bruce said quietly. He twiddled his thumbs together and Tony moved his hand up and squeezed the kid's shoulder affectionately. Tony could see the pain in Bruce's eyes, the scars just below the surface. He knew his father was not kind to him. He knew touch was a sensitive thing, but he could also tell Bruce trusted him. Trusted him a hell of a lot more than any SHIELD agent at least. Actually, the change in Bruce's behavior had been phenomenal. The conditions in which he was being kept must have been a special kind of cruel in he was suddenly so open and trusting of Tony and Pepper and even Clint, albeit he seemed eager to get out of the archer's strong arms.

Clint sauntered across the kitchen, avoiding the eggs and split milk as best as he could. "I'm no baker." Clint warned as he grasped the wooden handle of the spoon. The dough was hard and thick, a little too clumpy than Clint thought it was supposed to be. He lifted the spoon and all of the dough came up with it. "That isn't natural." The archer mumbled as he took the nearest spoon and scraped the dough off the wooden one. Tony laughed and flung a handful of flour at his teammate. Clint huffed as his face was promptly whitened. Pepper laughed and leaned the broom she was holding against the fridge.

"You're a child, Tony. Bruce is more mature than you," She teased. Bruce little, high pitched laugh sounded through the room. Tony didn't even see the chunk of hard dough flung at the side of his face. The billionaire gaped like a fish out of water at the archer before he smirked mischievously. He reached up and peeled the dough from his hair and sat it between him and Bruce. He then stretched behind him and grabbed the very open box of baking soda. Pepper called for Tony to stop and Clint held his hands up in surrender, but Tony let the box fly anyway.

Clint was prepared and ducked. And JARVIS decided it wasn't important to inform them that Natasha was back and standing right behind Clint. No one was laughing when the open box of baking soda smacked her in the face. White powder splattered all over her face and stained the front of her blood red hair. The sound of Tony's teeth clinking together filled in the yawning silence. Natasha's green eyes flickered down to the box laying at her feet. Delicately, she bent and scooped up the box. She turned it over in her hands before quirking her eyebrow and glancing at Tony.

The baking soda box went flying past Clint and smacked into Tony's chest. Power showered into the air. Pepper let out a long laugh, joined by Clint, Bruce, and Natasha. Tony was making more of a gurgle sound as he slipped off the counter and tripped to the bathroom, half choking on the bitter taste of baking soda on his tongue.

The dough all ended up in one messy glob underneath the table after two dozen eggs had been broken, a half gallon of milk spilled, and a whole bag of chocolate chips dumped into the sink.


	8. Children

**Warnings: Swearing, fluff, people stuffing their faces, Steve! (Oh, I just saw Captain America The Winter Soldier last night...pretty awesome. Except when I thought they...oh well nevermind, that'd be a spoiler.) And Little!Tony comes in next chapter ^_^**

**A/N: Do these pointless things ever seem redundant and cold? Unbetaed, hell probably not edited, and any type of Marvel seen here is not owned by me, unfortunately.**

Steve had two days left of training when the message from Fury came in. The message had been vague enough, simply stating that Steve needed to be back at Stark Tower -not SHIELD HQ which raised enough red flags on its own- as soon as possible. The message cut off there. Playing back the message in his huge tan tent he could hear the shaking rage in Fury's voice along with blatant exasperation. The recruits had been disappointed that they didn't get to finish their training session with him, but he promised that once he figured out what Fury wanted he'd train them again.

Steve was, admittedly, quite positive he knew why Fury was calling him back. He didn't think it was ludicrous to assume it had something to do with Bruce being transformed into...well Little Bruce. Even though he originally thought they should let Fury know, secretly he wanted to avoid this confrontation. Fury could be...explosive to put it lightly. If this _was _about Bruce though...they'd probably be in deeper shit with not telling Fury than they were telling him.

While he'd been training the recruits, he hoped that Tony would've found a cure for Bruce's problem, and the fact that it taken just over a week was a little worrisome. Of course Steve didn't know much about science, and it was beyond him how something like this was even remotely _plausible _, but he assumed if anyone could figure it out in record time it would be Tony. And if anyone could keep something from Fury, it would be Tony. Either the billionaire was off his game or something had gone terribly wrong.

Steve was turning ghastly scenarios over in his head during the five hour long jet ride back to the States. The ride to Africa had been much longer, considering they hadn't stuck him on a jet with seemingly warp speed capabilities. It wasn't all a smooth ride though. Their incredible speed caused exceptionally large wind current to knock the jet around, which in turn caused Steve's lunch to lurch in his stomach. The time he didn't spend drawing or worrying he spent with his head between his knees taking deep, calming breaths.

He couldn't be happier when the jet swooped down and landed at SHIELD HQ. As he stepped out of the jet he expected to see Fury standing there, the winds buffering his black trench coat and unreadable face even more stoic than usual. However the only person waiting for him was Marie Hill, not even Agent Coulson, or Phil as he insisted Steve call him.

"Fury's not gonna meet and greet me?" Steve questioned as he shoved his duffle bag up higher on his shoulder. Hill shrugged as she led the way off of the platform.

"Fury's a little stressed," She said conversationally. "I'm supposed to act as your glorified chauffeur." She led him to the elevator.

"Do you know what this is about? I had two more days of training with the recruits." They rode the elevator down to the garage before Hill spoke.

"I think you already have a pretty good idea," She countered dryly. "Before you star snapping at me, Captain, think of the number of questionable choices you've made." Steve just noticed the rough way her body moved, as if she was stifling one hell of a rage.

"I wasn't snapping, Agent Hill. I'm just curious," He explained. So, this probably was about Bruce, and all of SHIELD was well aware of his 'betrayal' so to speak. "Can you blame me?" She didn't even throw a contemptuous look over her shoulder at him as they got into the sleek black car.

They rode to Stark Tower in a tense, yet mutual silence. Steve tapped his foot against the floor of the car, the silence setting his nerves of fire. Hill didn't spare him even a side eye as she drove them. They pulled up to Stark Tower and Steve was out of the car before it even pulled to a complete halt. Knowing Tony, things were going terribly wrong up there.

"Thanks," Steve said as he slammed the car door shut. He felt dirty, knowing that Phil and Marie and even Fury relied on his loyalty to them as well as his loyalty to his team. However, it was hard to do both, especially when it came to Tony and Bruce. He understood how quickly things could go to shit if they found out Bruce did something potentially dangerous. They could lock him up like a dog, like an animal. Tony had even gained some ground with SHIELD and any questionable choices he made could harm the unsteady relationship and trust he managed to install in Director Fury. Steve could already tell _he _was on shaky ground and he was Captain America. If his standing in SHIELD could become compromised so quickly he didn't want to think about how little time it would take Bruce and Tony to get their asses tanned.

Pepper was waiting for him in the office, looking just as presentable and unruffled as always. There was a small smile on her face as she greeted the captain. They rode up to the main floor and the first thing Steve noticed was the near silence on the floor. He tilted his head, expecting to maybe hear the trickle of alcohol as Tony poured himself a drink, or as Clint or Natasha turned up the television.  
There was nothing though. Steve stepped out of the elevator beside Pepper. A tiny, content smile was on her face as he motioned for him to keep quiet with a finger to her lips. He followed her into the living room, an involuntary smile stretching across his face.

There on the couch was Natasha, Clint, Tony, and Little Bruce. Tony was sleeping on his back, his head supported by the arm of the chair. His knees were bent to allow Clint enough room to sit. Natasha was tucked between Clint -whom was sandwiched between Natasha and Tony's legs- and the arm of the couch. Clint's head was flopped back, mouth open and a tiny trickle of drool beading at the corner of his mouth. Natasha had her feet tucked delicately under her, and her head was using Clint's shoulder as a headrest. And then there was tiny Bruce, curled up on Tony,s chest, his little feet pressed against Tony's thighs, one of his hands fisting his shirt and his curly mop of brown hair was pressed underneath Tony's upward tilted chin.

"Oh my god," Steve smiled. He usually tried to avoid bring God into things, but it seemed applicable enough. He couldn't recall seeing anything cuter in his entire life. Of course there was the twinge in the back of his mind that stressed over the fact that Bruce was still deaged, but he couldn't bring himself to care. They looked so much like a family, pressed trustingly against each other and Tony's arm curled casually, yet protectively, over Bruce.

"I know," Pepper agreed simply, a bright smile lighting up her face. "They tried to make cookies. I wouldn't go in the kitchen if I were you. Welcome back, Captain." She reached over and squeezed his hand before making her way presumably to her own room, content to let the four people sleep on the couch. Steve checked his watch. It was only nine o'clock, but stressed induced tiredness tugged at his eyelids. But...the thought of the kitchen left in a state of disarray weighed heavily on his mind.

Despite Pepper's warning, he made his way to the kitchen as quietly as possible. She hadn't been lying about the 'trying' part. There was baking supplies and ingredients everywhere. Steve let out a soft chuckle and deposited his bag outside of the kitchen. He then set to work on cleaning up the disaster.

Tony awoke to the sound of dishes clanging. He groaned, arching up until he heard his back crack. The back of his neck was stiff as rocks, and there was a lump of weight on his chest. Momentary panic flared in his brain was he realized the weight also bore down on his arc reactor, but when he craned his head up and saw Bruce's curly hair, he breathed a sigh of relief. He let his head flop back down after realizing he was all squished up because of Natasha and Clint taking up the second half of the couch. He figured Pepper must be either cleaning up the disaster they made the other day, or making breakfast.

"JARVIS," Tony called out quietly. "Time?"

"Nearly eight o'clock in the morning, sir. You've slept the whole night through." JARVIS said just as quietly. It was just loud enough to jostle Natasha awake though. She stirred silently, eyes flickering open and pupils contracting in the light of the room. She moved away from Clint before Tony could even really tell that she was awake.

"Hey, cuddle s'more." Clint mumbled as his hand blindly groped for the body that left his side. Natasha snorted and spun on her heel, storming down the hall. Tony watched with an amused smirk. The way they danced around each other _and_the way that they were so blatantly protective of one another left nothing to the imagination. Even if Natasha would scowl and say that love was for children and Clint would shrug and say they were just friends, they would be together someday, Tony just knew it.

Clint scooted away from Tony, still asleep as his upper body hunched over and he curled into a ball on the couch, dried drool staining his face. Tony smirked and wrapped both of his arms around Bruce. He shuffled out from under the kid and gently placed him on the couch. He barely twitched a muscle.

He sauntered to the kitchen, arms stretched above his head and yawning. His socked feet slid against the ground as he walked. There wasn't Pepper busily busting around the kitchen, but Steve Rogers, dressed in a vanilla splashed white apron putting pancakes on the table and balancing a tray of delicious smelling chocolate chip cookies. Steve's blue eyes caught sight of Tony around the same time saliva starting to pool into the billionaire's mouth.

"Who knew a solider could cook?" Tony asked rhetorically, already moving for the stack of lightly crisped golden pancakes. Steve stopped him by holding out an arm.

"A captain, actually," Steve corrected in a rare, cheeky voice. "And this is for everyone, Tony."

"And he's back to bossing everyone around again," Tony sighed through his nose dramatically. "I'll...mind my manners." Tony smirked and patted Steve on the shoulder. He turned and whisked out of the room, nearly breaking into a jog. "If you guys," Tony drawled as he stared at the napping miniature Bruce and not so miniature Clint. "Wanna wake up...?" Tony reached down and shook Clint's shoulder. The archer grumbled something and swatted his hand away.

"Don't need to be a snappy bitch about it," Tony huffed indigently.

"Let sleeping children lie," Natasha said, suddenly behind the playboy. Tony spun, practically tripping back onto the couch.

"Let sneaking women sneak," He bitterly countered quietly. "Mr. Everyone-Deserves-A-Pancake said we can't chow until these sorry excuses for superheroes are awake."

"I heard that!" Steve yelled from the kitchen. Natasha looked past Tony and rolled her green eyes.

"Clint, I'm naked." That was all it took. The blue eyed archer sat up faster than a horse leaving the loading gates at the Kentucky Derby.

"You're what?" He asked as he stumbled and swayed to his feet, grabbing onto Tony's shoulder for balance.

"A tease," Tony wiggled out from under Clint's hand as he answered for the redhead. She fixed him with a glare.

"Stark is having a tantrum because he can't stuff his face with pancakes." Natasha explained. "At least not until everyone is up."

"I wouldn't call it a tantrum exactly-"

"I don't think anyone really cares," Natasha interrupted. Clint watched with only a raised eyebrow.

"Well I want some damn pancakes. And syrup. And whipped cream. And whomever cooked the pancakes remembered to get strawberries right?" Clint asked as he headed towards the kitchen.

"We have strawberries," Steve poked him head from around the doorway. "No whipped cream though. I did manage to make cookies out of that disaster you guys left in the kitchen."

"That was Bruce's fault," Tony waggled his finger at the sleeping four year old. "Which reminds me..." He bent down and placed a hand on the tiny shoulder, giving it a little shake. "Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey. Er- should I say pancakes and cookies?" Bruce stirred under Tony's gentle ministrations , pudgy fists rubbing at his hazy brown eyes.

"Mom?" The tiny voice asked questioningly, eyes blinking to clear themselves. Tony felt his heart swell as he glanced back at Natasha. The redhead had her eyes diverted though, fixed on an interesting part of the floor. Clint, just within earshot, was trying to look anywhere besides Tony and the couch.

Tony glanced back down again at the little bundle of clothes and curly hair. After the semi realization he and Pepper had come to, Tony tried to show the boy that he had nothing to be afraid of. During the kitchen fiasco, it seemed to work. Bruce stuck mainly to his side and laughed full belly laughs without fear of being reprimanded. Tony could only hope that today had the same good results.

"Na, it's someone _so _much cooler." Tony smirked deviously. Bruce's eyes fixed on him and for a split second slight fear washed through them. It was replaced by warmth however. The deaged scientist sat upright and smiled sleepily. Natasha was staring at him now, her eyes softer than usual. "There's someone I think you'd like to meet." Tony said as he offered Bruce his hand, straightening. The four year old took it and hopped down from the couch, his little socked feet thudding lightly against the floor.

"His name is Steve, but you can call him Captain Spangles. He likes that. He also has all the good qualities of a sixty's house wife; the hair, the cooking skills, the cleaning skills, the motherly intuition, the lack of manhood-" Natasha slapped Tony's arm.

"He's four," She scolded. Tony looked over at her as he guided Bruce into the kitchen and towards that delicious aroma of fresh baked treats and pancakes.

" Exactly. He probably has no idea what that even means." Tony rounded the corner with Bruce and Natasha in tow. Clint was already sitting at the table, staring lustfully at the pancakes and chocolate chip cookies. His eyes kept flickering back and forth between both savory food items as if he just couldn't decide which to ogle. This ended up wi Clint attempting to stare at both food items out of the corner of his eyes.  
Steve was standing there, proudly holding a spatula in his hand. He smiled down at Bruce and waved the spatula in greeting. The four year old instantly reached out and snatched Tony's pant leg, sliding behind him and tucking his face against the back of Tony's lower thigh.

"Nice work, Captain Spangles," Tony said, gesturing vaguely behind him at the hiding Bruce. Sulkily Steve lowered the spatula and knelt down to be eye level with Bruce.

"I'm Steve Rogers. Captain America...do you know who I am?" The blonde asked tenderly. Bruce stared at him, some recognition flaring in his eyes but was instantly replaced with wariness. His mouth remained firmly shut.

"He's also known as That Guy or That Guy In The Tights." Tony interjected lightheartedly. Bruce, even big Bruce, always seemed nervous meeting new people, but it wasn't like him to cower completely. From what Clint shared of his and Natasha's Bruce hunting expedition, Bruce hadn't been all that nervous of them.

"Don't listen to Tony. He'll fill your head with lies," Steve smiled, deciding to pretend not to be offended by the lack of e kids warmth or acknowledgment. He wasn't going to lie; it hurt. He was used to kids running up to m in the streets, hugging him and asking for his autograph and wanting to be told stories. He was used to being recognized everywhere he went, especially when he was wearing his uniform. Sure, he wasn't wearing his uniform now and the emasculating apron he was wearing probably did nothing to convince Bruce that he was actually Captain America, but he did tell the kid who he was and why would he lie about that? He sat down at the table and gnawed at his thumb nail while the others sat down. Well, when Bruce was this age he would have still been frozen, more of a legend than an actual person. If Bruce did know of him, he probably thought of him like a story, little more and if he didn't think of him that way he probably assumed, like the rest of the world, that he was dead.

Or maybe Bruce was never a fan of Captain America.

Steve helped himself to two pancakes and three strawberries, forgoing the cookies and syrup. He was never terribly into sweet things. It seemed inconceivable to him that a kid wouldn't be into Captain America, and that made him sound completely conceded, but it was true. From the little he's been told about Tony's childhood, the billionaire used to idolize him. Idolize him because Howard Stark, his father, used to speak of him in such high regard.

Steve glanced over at Tony, who was greedily piling food onto his and Bruce's plates. Sometimes it was hard to believe that this was Howard's son. Sure, Tony had some of his physical features, his last name, and certainly some of his more flamboyant personality traits, but Steve never thought he'd see the day Howard Stark's son was in his forties. Hell at the time he didn't even know if Howard would even have a son, or daughter, or child in general. The man was as work oriented as Tony, in different ways.

And then there was the fact that Tony hated him, albeit not as much as he did when they first met. He didn't really know Tony's reasoning and never built up the courage to ask. Sometimes he really just wanted to know what ever the hell he did to make Tony dislike him so much, and other times he figured that it was probably deep rooted and wasn't any of his business. Tony would probably just beat around the bush anyhow until Steve tired, said never mind, and left. Tony was good at avoiding questions he didn't want to answer.

They ate with little conversation. They were about halfway through the oversized stack of pancakes when Tony, around a mouthful of chocolate chips cookie, asked about Pepper. Steve informed him that she left about an hour before they got up to go to the spa.

By the time they finished their meal, there was only one and a half pancakes left, and a third of a cookie. Steve had only eaten two pancakes and decided to sketch a birds eye view of a playground while his teammates finished their breakfast. Natasha ate an applaudable four and a half pancakes, with no strawberries (she said the seeds all got stuck in her teeth) and a boatload of syrup, Clint ate a stomach churning five pancakes all topped with a surplus of syrup and strawberries and regrettably no whipped cream, Tony ate a jaw dropping amount of six pancakes, eight strawberries, a half a bottle of syrup, and a glass of fine scotch, and Bruce proudly consumed one pancake, ten strawberries (Bruce explained in a hushed voice that they were his favorite fruit) and just a dribble of syrup.

"Well," Tony's voice broke through the silence. "I've got tests to run and notes to take. If you guys don't think it'd be too much trouble, could you watch Bruce for me? I've only been doing it for the past week." Tony shrugged and stood up. Steve internally rolled his eyes at how dramatic he could be. The captain thought he could recall something about 'attention whore' in his file.

"I bet Bruce would like to learn how to use Nerf Guns, wouldn't you?" Clint asked excitedly, glancing down at the kid. Bruce simply shrugged, ducking his head at the sudden attention.  
"I bet Bruce would like to watch a nice nature documentary," Tony said thoughtfully as he rummaged through a stack of electronics on a desk.

"Maybe he likes to draw," Steve pipped up, tapping his pencil eraser against the cover of his sketch book. Natasha huffed.

"Maybe he'd like to have a say." She said coldly. Bruce seemed exceptionally bashful, shrinking back into his chair and twiddling his thumbs together.

"I've gotta run, Brucie, and leave you with these very un-fun people, but when I get back we'll watch Star Trek or something, 'kay?" Tony said as he picked up his Stark tablet. Bruce glanced up from under his eyelashes and smiled a little, nodding. Clint crinkled his nose.

"Star Trek? Gross. Sci-Fy films are just way to complicated and nerdy. Know what we should watch? The Hunger Games. Or Robin Hood."

"I saw War Horse," Steve added. "That was good."

"How about you let Bruce chose what movie he wants to watch?" Natasha's voice was even colder than it was last time.

"I think he'll like Star Trek. It's a little scientifically inaccurate but the hot aliens make up for it." Tony said.

"Hot aliens? You mean Spock?" Clint teased. Tony stuck his tongue out at him and continued to do so as he stepped into the elevator and until the door closed. Clint was laughing at his sloppily thrown together joke until he realized Steve was just looking at him with a raised eyebrow and Natasha had a near murderous glint in her eyes.

"I like Spock," Bruce said quietly. Clint looked down at him again and ruffled his hair.

"Yeah, I think he's my favorite too."

"Yeah, like that," Steve nodded as he leaned over and smudged the black line Bruce drew with his coal pencil. For his credit, the kid was doing a fine job of making a close up horse face. He had the angles right, and understood that a head wasn't just a poorly drawn circle with a round body attached to it. No, Bruce made sure to get the taut line of muscle in the horse's neck the perfect angle of the horse's ears. He didn't seem to keen on shading, so Steve helped him out when he saw the opportunity.

Since Tony had left for Bruce's lab two hours ago, Bruce had divided his time between Clint and Steve. Natasha hadn't been over exuberant to spend any time with their deaged teammate, so the two males stepped up to the plate. The time Bruce spent with Clint was mainly watching episodes of Robin Hood in mutual silence. Steve, as he worked through some paperwork or the other, could see the trust in Bruce very posture. He didn't shy away when Clint's hand went to grab the remote by his knee, or if the archer shifted at all. Steve felt...hurt that Bruce did so when he made sudden movements around him, but Bruce did just meet him this morning.

However he did like to draw and that was something he and Steve had in common. It was strange, though. Steve couldn't remember adult Bruce ever telling him that he even liked to draw, let alone the fact that he was more than decent. Little Bruce certainly did though, even if the majority of the drawings he made were childish, blobs of color and squares and circles. Steve could feel how intimidated Bruce was when he snuck a glance over Steve should at his drawing when he didn't think the blonde was watching.

It was almost as if he wanted to be as good as Steve, but at the same time feared it. That much became more than obvious the second Bruce set to work on drawing something new; a horse head. It was incredibly detailed for a four year old, probably better than the drawings Steve did at that age. It wasn't anything compared to Steve's drawings now, it was just too 2D and unstructured to measure up, but it was impressive. Then again Steve supposed he shouldn't think of Bruce as a simple four year old; he was too smart at any age to be written off like that.

"Do you like horses?" Steve asked as he smoothed his thumb over his own coal pencil sketch. He had elaborated on the sketch of the playground he made at breakfast, deciding to make it appear more abandoned. Bruce stared at his own drawing and finally looked up, shrugging. "You're really good," Steve pressed, giving Bruce's shoulder a little nudge. The kid just shied away, muscles tensing. The blonde let out a sigh and sat down his pencil, pushing himself into a sitting position from his stomach. They had decided to draw of the floor, the table was still covered in breakfast stuff.

"I learned to draw when I was just a kid. I was sick a lot, had asthma and the weakest immune system in the world. There wasn't really much for me to do; I missed school a lot, couldn't go out and help with the chores or anything. So I drew and I read what I could. Mostly drew though.

"I used to just draw things in my room, then I'd look out the window and draw a tree or a horse or a house, or whatever caught my eyes. I started out a lot worse than you. Just mindless shapes, you couldn't even tell what they were." Steve let a wisp of a smile break across his face. Bruce as staring at him intently, little eyebrows drawn together.

"My momma likes horses," Bruce said quietly. His fingers ghosted over the page. "She used to ride. That's what she told me. Daddy used to get her presents..." Bruce trailed off, distress in his voice. "He-he used to get her presents when I was littler. When he was still 'daddy'. He'd get her little figurines and drawings and books and shirts with horses on them. I'm gonna ride when I'm older...if-if Dad will let me. Mommy said she was gonna ride with me." Bruce didn't let his eyes meet Steve's once during his little spiel. Steve just stared at that bent head of curly locks, some sadness filling his eyes.

"Yeah?" He tried to keep his voice jovial. "That's awesome. I bet you and your mom will have a lot of fun doing that. Does your dad not like horses?" Bruce shook a little before rapidly shrugging his shoulders and busying himself over his paper. He looked worried -panicked- as if he'd said way too much. If Steve wasn't imagining it, he thought he could see the slightest blush of green over the kid's skin and that was never good news.

"I think your mom will like her gift," Steve said decidedly and finality. Bruce looked up quickly and let the trickle of a smile onto his face. Steve could see the responding 'I do too' glimmering in his eyes.

"Don't you think Tony should be back by now?" Clint asked as he shut Bruce's door behind him. The kid had been yawning for the past hour and finally Steve and Clint decided it was bedtime. Bruce didn't put up a fight.

Tony's disappearance weighed on Clint's mind despite the successful night. He'd been gone since ten and it was already eight pm now. Steve was sitting on the couch picking through a fruit salad.

"He probably went down to his garage or something. You know how he is," Steve wasn't worried. Tony would sometimes disappear for days in the bowels of his tower and emerge only to bathe, sleep for an hour, grab a snack, and head back down to either his garage or lab.

"Hey JARVIS?" Clint called.

"Yes, Agent Barton?" The AI responded. His voice sounded nearly as tired as Clint felt.

"Is Tony in the garage, or any where else for that matter?"

"Negative. Sir has not left Dr. Banner's laboratory since he entered it."

"If he okay?" Steve interrupted. JARVIS seemed to sigh.

"I do not have visual of Dr. Banner's laboratory. His preferences were to keep his lab private." JARVIS explained. Steve grunted and scooped the last blueberry into his mouth.

"Thanks, JARVIS. I guess we should go check on him," Steve stood up and sat his empty bowl of the glass coffee table. He and Clint headed down to the lab, sharing very little words. The closer they got to the floor, the colder Clint's stomach became and the more it churned.

They stepped our of the elevator and made their way to Bruce's lab. The Lab of Youth as Tony called it. Fortunately, Tony had left the door unlocked, probably because the only person besides himself and Bruce that could gain access to the lab was Pepper and she wasn't here than it was safest this way.

"At least he has some sense of self preservation," Clint commented dryly as he pushed open the door into the cool, sterilized lab. He didn't understand how anyone could willingly work in a place like this; with the frigid cold and the stench of hospital all around. It smelt vaguely like SHIELD medical, which brought back nothing other than sour memories.

But worst of all, above the sanitizer smell and the faint hum of AC/DC in the background was that the lab was inexplicably empty. Machines whorled, computers beeped, and sample sat patiently in their refrigerators or on their shelves waiting to be tested but there was no bodily presence, and there had been no signs of a struggle.  
Clint heard Steve's hushed and disbelieved 'oh God, no' the same second his eyes fell of the little bundle of neatly stack clothes in the center of the floor.


	9. Don't Promise Me The Stars or The Moon

**Warnings: Swearing, child in pain, arc reactor issues, no fluff. No motherfucking fluff.**

**A/N: I think you all get the gist of it by now.**

"JARVIS really needs to be allowed to look at Bruce's lab," Clint said as he carried a lump back up to the floor Natasha and Bruce were on. "I mean, seriously. This is just getting ridiculous." Steve's eyes drifted down to the pile of clothes in the archer's arms.

"No, this is just getting more complicated. Tony's clearly out of commission, Bruce is out of commission...where are we going to get our brains now?"

"You're talking about them like they're fucking chip bags in a vending machine." Clint grumbled.

"Clint, I don't have time for this. Fury's already angry enough as it is, Natasha's gonna go AWOL, and god knows how Pepper is going to cope." Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. Two team members had been _put the fuck out of commission _and both teammates happened to probably be the only people in the world that could figure out how to reverse this damn mess.

"Alright, we got this," Clint bounced the bundle in his arms. "We already have one four year old, what's another?"

"Another chance we might lose if Loki ever escapes Asgard and takes his vengeance out of Earth," Steve revealed grimly.

"What do you want me to do, Captain?" Clint asked, suddenly exasperated. He looked over at him. "I'm only _human _, I can't fucking fix this." Steve shook his head. He knew it wasn't fair to snap at Clint; none of this was his fault. But he was here and stress was piling higher up on Steve's shoulders with each passing day. Thor was in Asgard, Natasha wanted nothing to do with kids, from what Pepper told him Fury more or less gave them a big 'fuck you' and told them they needed to figure it out (not to mention the fact that Fury still thought he had Bruce in custody), and it would be a cold day in hell Clint would let Steve go to SHIELD to ask for glorified babysitters. But the fact of the matter was Steve had things to do, and Clint and Natasha had missions to run, and Pepper was the goddamned CEO of Stark Industries and her plate had been full from the get-go.

"You can't do anything. Just...maybe we can ask Coulson for some help." Steve suggested. The entire team trusted the agent and the agent was kind of like the poster boy for the Avengers, well other than Steve himself, and it would make sense that the agent could help watch the newly deaged Tony and Bruce. That was, of course, until Fury needed his special op ass on a mission to Thailand. "And what about Tony's friend? The pilot, was he?"

"Oh, yeah, Rhodes." Clint nodded. "Coulson probably won't like it much and Rhodes is pretty busy from what Tony tells me...but we could probably coerce them into a contract." The elevator dinged and they stepped out, only to be greeted by Natasha. Her green eyes immediately went to the bundle in Clint's arms and then the noticeable absence of Tony Stark and she put two and two together well enough.

"Our resident genius has, yet again, managed to fuck everything up, hasn't he?" She said nonchalantly. Clint chewed his lower lip.

"Yeah, but at least now there's enough children to go around," He extended his arms towards her and she took a step back, never uncrossing her arms.

"I'm going to go talk to Fury. Captain-" She gestured back towards the elevator and Steve sighed, clapping Clint on the shoulder. The archer watched them leave with dismay. Needless to say he's never thought he'd be in charge of two four year olds. Never.

"Agent Barton, if I may...?" JARVIS questioned suddenly. Clint nodded. "Sir made a habit of telling people he met that you were Dr. Banner's father. While I am not surprised by his lying, I am surprised at the forethought. I advise that you stick to Sir's story and tell questioning folk that Sir and Dr. Banner are your children." Clint seethed silently. When Tony was older, he was _so _going to pay for that.

"Yeah, guess I shouldn't confuse everyone. But what makes you think people won't recognize me as the very single, very childless Hawkeye from the superhero team The Avengers?"

"I mean no disrespect when I say you do not get as much publicity as the others." JARVIS seemed almost amused, _amused _, by this. Clint made an indigent snort and hiked Tony up higher in his arms.

"Stop with the flattery, JARVIS," Clint deadpanned as he made his way down the hall towards Bruce's bedroom. The most complicated part of this whole mess was definitely going to be explaining to Bruce where the fuck Tony went and why this was this goatee less younger replica of him hanging around. Keeping the lies straight to SHIELD,the army, the public, the kids, and hell, even _himself _was going to be undeniably difficult.

Clint carried Tony over to the couch where he delicately laid the kid down. He sat by the lump and gently unfolded the layers of clothing he was bundled up in like a snowman. Clint pulled aside the majority of Tony's t-shirt to reveal a tiny cheat, milk white skin stretched taut around a huge blue light. Ugly, discolored, protruding veins stretched away from the arc reactor, decorating his white chest in purples and red and blues. The arc reactor, while big enough on Tony's adult sized chest, looked humongous on this little human. It seemed to engulf his entire chest, stretching to cover nearly three quarters of it. Clint could see Tony's face cradled in a bundle of clothes. His mouth was slightly open, his cheeks were flushed an unhealthy pink, and beads of sweat dotted his brow. The muscles in his chest rippled with the effort of every breath.

"Oh shit fuck," Clint breathed as he gathered Tony back into his arms. "JARVIS, what are his vitals?"

"Sir's heart rate is well below the healthy zone for a resting, four year old male at forty nine beats per minute. He is also running a fever of approximately 103 degrees. Agent Barton, I advice you to get Sir to medical immediately." JARVIS's output was sharp and quick, worry underlined his tone. "Shall I call Happy for you?"

"No fucking time," Clint spat as he wrapped Tony back up in the makeshift blankets. He ran to the elevator, supporting Tony in the crook of his bent arm. The billionaire's bare, pale legs hung out from under the clothes, dangling limply. "Ah fuck!" Clint cried as the elevator arrived. "God dammit," He spun and jogged down the hall, the kid's body swaying in his arms. For having a fever, Tony's skin had been icy and clammy.

"Mr. Barton?" Clint heard a voice squeak from down the hall. There was Bruce, standing in the hall way in his green Hulk footie pajamas, one fist rubbing at his eye and the other clutching a Captain America shield stuffy Tony bought him. His curly brown hair was ruffled, his eyes were bleary and he was blinking rapidly trying to clear them.

"C'mon, we have to go," Clint said with urgency. To think he almost left the little fella behind. Bruce eyes his outstretched hand warily, before the flickered to the exposed legs hanging out of Clint's arms. Bruce pointed with a tiny finger.

"Who's that?" He asked, ignoring the hand. Clint groaned, his arm tightening around Tony. He had no idea how long the billionaire had been unconscious and deaged in Bruce's lab, nor how much longer he had left. _He didn't have time for this _.

"We have to go!" Clint shouted. He would later regret with all his heart grabbing Bruce's wrist with bruising force and dragging the now sobbing kid behind him but he also knew the difference of five minutes could mean life or death for the life cradled in his arms.

Clint dragged Bruce to the still open elevator and ordered JARVIS to take it down. The AI didn't even wait for Clint to finish his sentence before the elevator was zipping down the chute to the garage. Bruce was angled away from Clint, his little body shaking and tears pricking at his eyes. Tony hadn't even moved an inch.

Clint lunged out of the elevator the second the door opened. As many times as Tony told him to never touch his cars, not even the faintest reminded ran through his head as he ripped open the back door to the nearest car (a white Camaro, Clint would find out later, that Tony had gotten for Pepper as a birthday present.). JARVIS opened the door for them to expose the lite up city streets. Luckily, Tony hadn't taken the keys out of the glovebox, so he didn't take the time to highjack the car.

Unfortunately, however, the car was not an ambulance and there were no sirens to turn on. The car didn't even have JARVIS hooked up to it yet, which was a damn shame. Apparently, Tony never got around to making the modifications.

Clint was fortunate he was a good driver though. He supposed he had to be, with the unconscious Anthony Stark balanced on his leg and the shivering Bruce, rubbing at his wrist where Clint grabbed him, in the back seat. Clint didn't even notice the green hue to Bruce's eyes as he stared at the back of the archer's head, his face bathed in betrayal.

Clint swerved around a taxi, earning himself a shout and a blaring horn. He was pretty sure he scream some profanity back at the man, but he didn't really remember. Cars had to violently yank their wheels around to get out of Clint's way and pedestrians, with shocked looks on their faces, were forced to jump onto the nearest sidewalk as the Camaro tore down the street.

SHIELD HQ had never seemed so far away before. It felt like hours Clint was driving, just trying not to crash and kill them all. The car drove long and hand, like a racing horse. When he finally did pull up to the headquarters and was greeted by two young SHIELD agents, he was pretty sure Tony was dead. There was no way, no way he could still be alive and well. Not with his heart beating that slow. Ten thousand awful possibilities ran through his mind, especially of what he'd have to tell Pepper. Before he could even build up the courage to respond there were SHIELD Medical officers all around them, taking Tony from his and stretching him out on a gurney. Clint thanks the small miracle that was JARVIS for calling ahead. He wasn't, however, as enthusiastic to see Steve and Natasha. What would they say? Would they think it was his fault this happened to Tony?

Clint gazed out the windshield as the two Avengers approached him, their gaits swift. As soon as Steve reached him he was asking what had happened. Natasha was saying something, shouting something at him, to him, Clint couldn't tell. The words mushed together like rice in his brain, his ears rung, and he just couldn't think.

The archer held up a hand and instantly both of their jaws clicked shut. "I-Is...I don't know, okay." Clint sighed, hand falling back to the steering wheel with a hallow, defeated thump.

"So you just...noticed?" Steve asked quietly. Clint nodded, the image of Tony's chest rippling with enlarged, infected looking veins seared into his brain. The arc reactor looked so unnatural in the kid's chest, stretching the skin like it was trying to rip free of Tony's chest cavity.

"Bruce, he's with you?" Natasha questioned, not being able to peer in the back through the tinted windows. Clint nodded again, too worried and too unsettled to trust his voice. He knew the arc reactor was unnatural, whether it be embedded in Little Tony's chest or adult Tony's chest, but it looked so much more...foreign and intrusive in Little Tony's chest. The device, while almost beautiful and captivating on adult Tony, looked twisted and ugly and torturous on Little Tony. Clint could almost imagine Tony's face scrunched up in pain from the object buried deep within his chest, causing him pain yet keeping him alive at the same time. Paradoxical, Clint kept him alive, yet it endangered his life.

Steve walked around the car and opened to door. Bruce was curled up in the back, eyes downcast and fingers lacing together nervously. He was still dressed in his onesie, the shield stuffy tossed carelessly to one side.

"How are you doing?" Steve asked as he crawled into the backseat. Bruce's subtle shift closer to the opposite door could be dismissed as him making room to accommodate for Steve's large muscle mass, but the soldier knew otherwise.

Steve had no doubt Clint would have been in a cursing panic the moment he noticed the very sick -or injured- Tony. Even as an adult Bruce actively avoided havoc, panic, or disorder of any kind and for good reason. Steve, along with everyone else as far as he could tell, assumed it was because he didn't want to disrupt the Hulk's control, but seeing his nervousness around other people and chaos as a small child, long before the incident, struck a chord deep inside Steve.

"I'm okay," Bruce answered very quietly. Steve wasn't sure if he would've heard it had he not the super soldier serum to heighten his hearing and other senses.

"Yeah? A little nervous, I bet. Confused too. Don't worry, we'll explain everything to you just as soon as we understand ourselves," Steve let out a humorless chuckle and extended a hand towards Bruce. "You wanna come inside?" Bruce hesitantly looked at the offered hand and nodded, however he very politely inched around the hand as he squeezed past Steve to get outside. The rejection definitely hurt. Anyone he'd ever known, besides Tony, always wanted to shake his hand or take a photo with him, especially kids. Sure, Bruce might not know his celebrity status, but usually his friendly demeanor was enough to draw people in, as well as his chivalry (which Tony vehemently claimed was dead and considered sexist now) and mannerisms.

Bruce padded forward a few steps, so he was not far from Natasha's jean clad leg. He seemed to be putting a bodily guard between himself and Clint, who was leaning against the car. Natasha looked down and only frowned at the child shielding himself behind her legs. Steve could see his little hand itching to grab onto Natasha's pant leg.

It was odd, Steve decided, how Bruce naturally felt more comfortable around Natasha and Pepper than anyone else. Of course there was Tony who more or less forced his company, but just like adult Bruce, little Bruce didn't seem to mind all that much. In fact it only strengthened their unlikely bond. Pepper was understandable; he'd known her longer and she was always very friendly and engaged in conversation with him and what not. Natasha, however, had done little more than gaze at Bruce with contempt and try to avoid him as much as possible. Clint said her and kids never really got along, and the fact that Bruce might possibly transform into an enormous green rage monster over getting one less meatball in his spaghetti than everyone else didn't exactly scream good company to her.

Yet, Bruce was hiding behind her like they were old friends and Steve (feeling exceptionally neglected and looking like a kicked puppy) who had drawn with Bruce and even coaxed some personal information out of him was being regarded with nervousness and even _fear _. Bruce was afraid of him for some reason Steve couldn't pinpoint and that was troublesome.

"We should get inside, figure out what's wrong with To-" Steve caught himself just in time. He'd completely forgotten about how Bruce was going to handle this. Tony had more or less been attached to his hip ever since they found him in the lab a little over a week ago. The two had become best buds all over again, according to Pepper. Bruce would no doubt wonder where his very adult friend -and Steve meant that with the most innocence possible- went and why there was suddenly another four year old with the same name and personality. Steve wasn't so much worried about them not getting along; if they became friends as a forty year old and a four year old, they could do it again when both of them were four. He was more  
afraid of lying to Bruce (and to Tony too) and having him see right through, or figure it out. It wouldn't take much, Steve was a shitty liar and everyone knew it. It didn't help that these kids were both genius'.

So instead of saying Tony, Steve just said 'him'. Everyone understood who he was talking about and the ambiguity of his words. The trio walked in, with a very purposeful looking Natasha, a nervous Bruce glued to her side, a stressed Clint, whose hair was getting grayer by the second, and a dignified Steve, who brought up the rear and armed himself with a triage of questions to ask SHEILD medical personnel.

For having just brought in a possibly dying four year old with an arc reactor in his chest, medical seemed pretty calm. A woman with blue SHIELD issue scrubs came up to them expectingly. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and there was a friendly, but professional, smile on her face.

"Captain, Agent Romanov, Agent Barton," She greeted each of them with an incline of her head. "And of course Mr. Banner," -shes smiled warmly down at the cowering child- "Agent Romanov, you might want to take Mr. Banner over to the bench, to avoid his worrying, of course."

"Of course, Doctor," Natasha said stiffly as he led Bruce over to the bench. He hopped up and turned to look at her retreating figure. She sent one 'stay' over her shoulder and Bruce dangled his feet sheepishly. As soon as Natasha got back over to the group, the doctor jumped right in.

"It's a good thing you got Stark to us when you did. Of course he isn't exactly the same Stark of yesterday, is he?" She glanced at Steve, waiting for an explanation.

"No," Steve sighed. "He was trying to, you know, find a cure, and it didn't really work, I guess." Steve didn't know all the scientific medical lingo, so he hardly thought he was the most qualified to answer the doctor's questions.

"I see. Fury was right then; you should've left finding a cure to us," She shrugged. "And, just so you know, we had to contact Fury. He's gonna want to know that Banner was broken out."

"You were treating him bad enough," Clint bit out defensively. "He's much happier and safer with us in Stark Tower." Even Natasha gave a firm nod of agreement.

"That's for Fury to decide," She sniffed contemptuously and reached over to the nearest table and picked up a clipboard. "We haven't had much time to conduct tests, obviously, but from what we can tell he has an extreme fever of one-oh-four. It's progressively climbing, so we gave him some antipyretic medication. It's holding it at a steady 104.1 degrees. The oxygen in his blood is also below normal, and he is having visible trouble breathing.

"From what we can tell, the arc reactor hasn't shrunk with his body. It's exerting too much pressure upon his bronchi tubes, limiting the supply of air to his lungs. Its massive size is also beginning to intrude on his heart, causing it stress. There also appears to be a severe infection somewhere in his chest cavity, causing the discoloration of his veins. We won't know the origin of the infection until we perform surgery, but we think it may be caused due to nearly the entirety of his raw chest touching the metal of his arc reactor. His body is attempting to cool down by going into diaphoresis." She explained.

"Diaphoresis?" Steve asked, crossing his arms. He wasn't sure, but that didn't sound good.

"It basically means sweating. A lot. And it has to be the side effect of something else, in this case the fever."

"You said something about surgery...?"

"Yes, to remove the arc reactor and find the origin on the infection so we know was antibiotics to give him." The SHIELD doctor said nonchalantly.

"What?!" Clint cried, flailing his arms. "You're kidding, right? If you take out the arc reactor Tony will die."

"We are well aware of that fact, Agent. Please don't tell me how to do my job and I won't tell you how to do yours."

"Taking it out will kill him," Natasha said coolly.

"If we leave it in it'll kill him. There are two solutions; we either need to build a smaller arc reactor to accommodate for Tony's small figure-"

"That won't work. Only Tony can build an arc reactor." Steve interrupted. "Pepper told me that."

"Exactly. That's why we have to use the second option. We need to hook him up to an external electromagnet that will keep the shrapnel from entering his heart, but the mechanics of the arc reactor are simply killing him. Tony didn't happen to build an arc reactor with the thought of being turned into a four year old in mind, did he?"

"What kind of electromagnet?" Natasha asked, straight to the point.

"An electromagnetic battery. It'll probably be too big for him to lug around, so he'll have to stay here." The doctor turned to leave when Clint caught her arm.

"He's not staying here. With all your technology you can't get him, or make him, an electromagnet the size of an IPhone? And if you can't he can carry it in a back pack like an oxygen tank." Clint said. There was anger in his voice, mixed with desperation and guilt. The doctor shrugged out of his grasp.

"We might have something smaller he could carry around, but the bottom line is it isn't my say. It's Fury's." With that she left, white sneakers squeaking against the floor. Clint hung his head in defeat. Everything was spinning so fast out of his control; Tony, Bruce, SHEILD. He had duties to SHIELD, to Fury, to everyone else that worked for the agency, but the Avengers...they were his _family _, with the addition of Coulson.

He knew he owed SHIELD, especially Coulson, his life numerous times. He knew they they helped turn his shit hole of a life around, but in the Avengers, with his teammates, he felt more than loyalty. More than debt. He felt love and protectiveness and compassion and he got it in return. The only person he ever felt like that towards before was Natasha, and he could see in her eyes that she felt the same way. Now, there was Steve and Tony and Bruce and Thor. There was Pepper too, and hell even JARVIS and the Hulk.

There was no way he was leaving Tony here just out of debts to SHEILD.

"We never got a chance to talk to Fury," Natasha said, breaking through the tense, heated silence.

"What will we say?" Clint asked. He knew where he stood, but he wasn't going to speak for Natasha and Steve as well.

"We'll tell him he can't take Bruce back to that cell," Natasha decided. "And we'll tell him if he want to keep Tony, then he'll have to keep us too." Clint smiled at her. Sometimes people forgot that she was just a hard ass, not heartless.

Fury burst through the doors to the SHIELD medical unit not long after. His black trench coat swept the floor and his single eye blazed.

"What is this," he said loudly enough to silence all of the people in the medical 'lobby' so to speak. "I hear about Tony Stark?" Natasha was the first to step forward, her jaw set and arms crossed.

"There was an accident, Sir. Stark seems to have recreated Banner's fuck up." She explained. Fury blinked twice, hard and slow.

"There's that," He growled, trying to keep himself from throwing his fist at the nearest face. "There's also the fact that Banner," -he turned and glared right at the tiny child on the bench- "is here rather than where I left him. I want a god fucking explanation _now _." Everyone had there eyes fixed on the visibly shaking man, some inching backwards as if he was an atomic bomb.

"The arc reactor is killing Stark," Steve began as he walked forward to stand next to Natasha.

"Barton got him here as soon as he noticed. I don't know all the medical facts, Director. Talk with your medical personnel if you're curious. As far as Banner...I told you we were going to get him back one way or another. He's a child, he doesn't know who you are, he's scared, and you know as well as anyone, Director, why he shouldn't be separated from people he trusts." Natasha finished for Steve.

"You all went directly against my orders," Fury spat.

"With all due respect, sir, Banner and Stark aren't your concern. As soon as Stark gets his new um...arc reactor substitute-" Natasha cut Steve off.

"Electromagnet, Cap," She corrected.

"Yeah, that. As soon as Stark gets his new electromagnet, we're taking him and Banner back to Stark Tower."

"And what do you plan on doing about it? None of you are at all qualified to try and reverse their mess." Fury brought up the best point, but Natasha was ready.

"We can take care of Banner and Stark. SHIELD can try and fix whatever they did to themselves. We can give you the research Banner was doing before he was turned into a four year old, and you can handle it from there. Leave the child care to us." She compromised. Fury's eyes darted between the SHIELD personnel and the Avengers.

"Fine. They're your fucking responsibility. If you loose Banner again, I am locking him up. So help me god if you think that I am fucking bluffing. If Stark does anything, and I mean _anything _as sneezing in the wrong fucking direction, I am locking his ass up. As far as your missions go, I'll let you borrow Coulson. If anyone on the outside, press, Loki, the fucking hobo down the street finds out about this, out. Fucking out. You'll no longer be SHIELD agents. Get your motherfucking shit together, Romanov, Barton, Captain." Fury spun on his heel, leaving no room for arguments or questions. Natasha watched his back, head high and fingers digging into her forearms.

"So fucking be it!" Clint screamed after Fury, his face flushed with anger. Steve held up his hands. He heard enough swearing for one day.

"We got our way, okay guys. We got our way." He turned to see the female doctor they were talking to coming towards them again.

"Stark will be ready to go home tomorrow after his surgery and we can make a phone sized electromagnet for him. You don't have to stay." She said. Steve shook his head.

"I'm staying, just for Tony." Clint stepped up next to Steve.

"I'm staying too. Moral support and all." The archer shared a look with Steve. Natasha glanced back at the watery eyed Bruce and walked up to them.

"I'm taking Bruce back to the Tower. I'll come up with something to tell him," She said. Steve turned and placed a hand in her shoulder, squeezing it gently.

"Thank-you Natasha. He's probably terrified after Fury and Tony...and he seems to like you okay," The blonde showed her a lopsided smile. Natasha didn't return it.

"I should be there to tell Potts too. She'll want all the details and Bruce would probably feel more comfortable with her," Natasha said. Both Clint and Steve nodded their heads in agreement.

"We'll call if there are any emergencies," Steve said before nodding his head towards Bruce. "Tell us what you told him, too, just so...you know."

"I know," Natasha agreed, looking over at the kid. She made her way through the SHIELD personnel, breathing out a silent sigh of relief. She wasn't sure if Fury would ever relent, but he did and the compromise was more than she could have wished for. She didn't know how speedy SHIELD would be with the research, but at this point they were simply out of options. Beggars couldn't be chosers.

Bruce looked up at the sound of her footsteps, his brown eyes still wet and his hands clasped together. His fingernails dug into the skin on the back of his hands. "We're going to go back to the Tower and see Pepper, okay?" She said as she offered the child her hand. Bruce delicately took Natasha's hand and hopped down, his feet hitting the floor. She glanced down. He was wearing only his footie pajamas, and he didn't have time to put on shoes before he was dragged to medical with Clint and Tony. Already the feet of his pajamas were covered in dirt from the run from the Camaro to the building.

"Here," Natasha let go of his hand and gathered him in her arms, tucking him close to her chest as she walked outside. She could feel the eyes of all the SHIELD personnel boring into her back and Clint and Steve gazing at her with warm, cocky smiles.

Pepper didn't know why no one was home when she got back. All it took was one brief explanation from JARVIS before she was on the couch sobbing, head in her hands. She wasn't upset because Tony was little now, four years old like Bruce. No, that would have just made her stressed and anxious, but not sobbing. She had iron tear ducts and an even stronger will and self control, but not when it came to Tony. Never when it came to Tony. People assumed that after seeing him almost die countless times she'd become immune to it; the worry, the hurt, the betrayal, and the eventual relief when she realized he was no worse for wear.

But the hard reality was every time was like the first.

She'd never admit it to anyone but herself, of course. She always came back with something cheeky, something to divert their eyes and make them think she didn't give a damn. Something for them to write in the news other than just another woman crying over her man. But when Tony was kidnapped, when he was just gone for that first time, it was like the world stopped spinning.

For everyone else it was a tragedy. A great mind with so much purpose and future just gone. But the streets of China were still just as busy, people bought stocks and sold them, babies were born, people lost their jobs and life went on. Not for Pepper though.

That house in Malibu had never felt bigger. Every wall loomed above her, and Tony's downstairs lab like a teenager's basement bedroom reminded her everyday of what she lost. All Pepper knew was JARVIS's voice, the sulky, sad quality to it. All she knew was the inventions Tony had built and would never use again.

They weren't dating then, but there would never be a time when they wouldn't be seen as an old married couple. And Pepper felt like a widow, loosing the most valuable thing in her life. She didn't understand the feeling, didn't understand why her stomach churned at every picture if him she saw. She didn't understand any of it.

And then he came back and the world stared spinning again and that awful feeling of ice in her heart and stomach melted away. He came back, bumped and bruised and traumatized to hell and back, but he still came back. That had become a constant in her life from the moment Tony became Ironman. When everything else was changing, she could always count on one thing; for him to come back.

In the Battle of Manhattan, or the Chitauri Invasion or whatever the fuck you wanted to call that powerful smash up in the middle of New York, he broke her heart again. Watching him on that tv screen, holding the nuclear bomb and flying _towards _that black hole in the blue of the sky, flying towards the hole where the aliens flew out, just ready to _never come back _. He took her heart with him, making all that long lost ice crystalize and flare through her as fast as he disappeared into that void.

She thought the one constant in her life was gone. She thought she just saw the only man she loved swallowed up with her heart, her life. He would never understand the roller coaster he set her on, all the pain and worry he caused her. At times she thought she should just skip town, try and get away from all the pain flooring her senses, but her legs would never take her past the front door.

And it was because Tony was her constant. The dips and turns and twirls and hills had become her life. And his coming back was something she'd have for as long as she was alive. Because if he didn't come back, that was that. She wouldn't come back either.

But it never got easier. After all this time, after seeing his life balance on the brink time and time again it never got easier. She could have a million epiphanies, but at the end of the day she would still have to cut away those icy tendrils when they came rushing back.

Now was one of those times when she knew she had to compose herself, pick herself up and get herself the fuck back together, but she was still a sobbing mess on the couch.

JARVIS had told her about the accident and about the arc reactor and that was the worst part. It always would be because it was always about the arc reactor. It either worked or it didn't but it always seemed to cause a problem. And there was nothing anyone could do and that was the scary part. Tony was the only one with enough knowledge to really make one, the only one with working blueprints, and so no one else could do a damn thing if he was detained and it failed.

That was more or less the situation they were in now. Pepper wanted to run right to SHIELD medical and demand to know all the answers and demand to see him, but she knew it would only cause more harm than help. It would probably only electrify her nerves too. She'd ask someone, Steve or Clint or Natasha when one of them came back. Until then her place was to sit here and just wait for him to come back.

It was probably a little after nine when JARVIS informed her that Natasha was back with Bruce. She had composed her and met the agent and deaged scientist by the elevator.

"I'm guessing JARVIS told you?" Natasha said as she took in Pepper's rumpled clothes and beat red cheeks.

"Yes..." Pepper looked at Bruce in Natasha's arms. "Have you...?"

"No, I thought I'd explain it to him in the morning," Natasha said as she adjusted the kid. He was sleeping soundly, his head resting against the redhead's shoulder, velvet eyelids fluttering as he dreamed.

"Good idea. Here, he can sleep on the couch," Pepper led the way to the couch where Natasha gently deposited Bruce. He instantly curled up in on himself and yawned, bones creaking quietly as he did so.

"The arc reactor is causing some problems in his chest," Natasha began as she lowered herself down next to Bruce. Pepper sat down too, folding her hands in her lap. "It's putting too much pressure on his lungs, limiting his oxygen supply and taking up the room around his heart. The doctor basically said that if they didn't get it out, it would kill him."

"Taking it out will kill him."

"They're gonna hook him up to an electromagnet to keep the shrapnel out of his heart. They're probably in surgery right now. He also has a raging fever and infection."

"I see...do they think he'll be all right?"

"It's the only way," Silence followed Natasha's words, leaving them hanging in the room. They all knew the implications. There were no guarantees.

"What did Fury have to say?" Pepper asked eventually.

"He was pissed, but he said if we can watch them, they'll try and figure out the cure. If anything goes wrong though, Tony and Bruce are getting locked up." Pepper felt a flash of anger rage through her at Natasha's words. Fury had no right to detain the deaged genius', he had no right.

"Tony will be fine and Fury will not get his hands on them." Pepper said with stubborn finality.

Tony would come back.


	10. A Way Of Coming Back

**Warnings: Swearing, nightmare**

**A/N: This is like, the longest story I've ever written, yay!**

Ice and heat danced along his skin with each labored breath. A blush of red was deepened across his cheekbones, dusted down his arms and shoulders like a cloak and tinging the tips of his ears like powder. Tiny, translucent beads dotted his forehead. _Drip, drip, drip _. Sweat rolled off the tip of his nose, splashing onto his collar bone and hollow of his throat. Underneath ropey muscle and sanguine meat was a heart, crowded by a metal tunnel. It fluttered desperately in a frantic, uneven pattern. _Lub-dub, lu-lu-dub, lub-dub _. Tough ribs moved against stretched clammy skin with each slow, painful inflation of lungs. Air whooshed out of his throat like little gusts of wind.

His eyes moved under his eyelids, mapping out a dream that felt more grounded in reality. He was sitting on a rock, small and little against the desert sky. Caws of crows that don't belong in midnight heat like this, don't belong where their raven black talons, sharp as uncut diamonds, could stroke the sand. Silhouettes of cacti loomed as tall as pine trees, thorns as long as branches. The moon crowded the sky, a soaked crimson, bleeding into the night. Snail tracks of red slipped away in rivets from the frowning moon, connecting the dots of stars. Red was breathed into the ground, staining it like a battlefield.

And there he sat. The rock was brittle under his hands, coming apart when he gripped it too tight. His hazel eyes gazed at the vermillion moon and the orange kissed horizon. He was lost, but he wasn't panicked. His mother, a ghostly outline somewhere on the mountain fell and rolled down the side, turning into a red river on the way. She rushed towards him, her waters twisting high into waves, slamming against rocks, toppling over cacti.

He tried to run, but the glare of the moon froze him in place. Screams echoed in his ears, some his own and some distant, cries for help. The water rushed towards him, each wave crashing with a _lub-dub lu-lu-dub lub-dub _. Before the current could reach him he was whisked away as he blinked. He was stretched on a table, echoing silence in his ears. Gnarled faces of demons with bloodless lips and sharpened, brown teeth grinned down at him. Their yellow eyes cut through the darkness like a flashlight, seeing right into the aura of his soul.

His eyes flickered down to his chest, peeled back and exposed. Cerise skin stuck to bloody rib bones, meat hung in strings, draped like icy on a cake over the white of his tiny stomach. Grotesque hands reached down, claws tearing through the gap in his chest, twisting under the flesh like raw chicken breast. Veins were a blurry blue against the red, chopped and pulled, strained and cut.

Yet amongst the torn up flesh, the cherry juice blood racing through the pores in his skin, splashed onto his face like water, running out of his eyes like tears was a light illuminating the darkness. It was bluer than blue, richer than sapphire and burning brightly into his retinas. It sent out a halo wider than the pale aquamarine of the ocean.

The claws reached down again, pulling and twisting the light. With a scream loud enough to burst eardrums, his eyes ripped open.

The scream had stuck in his throat, never actually tearing itself free. And oh god, he couldn't breathe. There was no oxygen in the air. There was nothing. The room spun and tilted and what was that awful pain in his chest? His throat burned, empty stomach sloshing as he dry heaved. With one more agonizing, useless breath, acid rushed up his throat. The sour yellow dribbled down his chin, dripping on the collar of whatever he was wearing.

He struggled for air, eyes watering and hand gripping the plastic handle to the bed he was laying on. Breathe. Calming breaths. He closed his eyes and breathed, sucking the oxygen from the air and breathing.

Slowly he calmed, the air returning to his lungs. The pressure in his chest had been imaginary, but the coolness surrounding it had not. He could feel the oxygen tubes in his nose and the needle in his arm. What had happened? He remembered falling asleep, the dream, and the no air.

His eyes flickered down to his chest. He couldn't see anything through the drug induced film covering his eyes. His sweaty hair flopped in front of his eyes as his head fell back against the pillow. Something had gone wrong when was asleep. He'd always been a bit on insomniac, and he knew that sometimes insomnia evolved into sleep apnea...but that wouldn't explain the feeling of wind whistling through his chest.

He blinked, trying to clear his vision as he turned his stiff neck, eyes drifting over towards the door. There was no mistaking that he was in a hospital room. Just the blinding white of the room was enough to confirm that, and god knows he'd been in one often enough to know.

He knew he couldn't talk, not with his throat this raw and his lips cracked from dehydration. So much for excellent care. He glanced down at his hand and saw the red button he was supposed to push if he needed assistance. His numb fingers fumbled with the button for a moment before he managed to push it.

Almost immediately a man burst in, his hair in disarray and glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. He was fumbling with a clipboard in his hands. He let the door close loudly behind him. "Mr. Stark," The man greeted breathlessly. He didn't appear to be a doctor, but perhaps a nurse. Tony just stared at him quizzically, all though it was hard because the man kept swimming and morphing into various shapes in his vision.

"Where-where am I? What happened?" Tony manages between dry lips. The nurse hummed and looked behind him.

"Yeah, um...it's not really my place to tell you that kid- er I mean sir! Sorry sir, I'll just," -the man pointed back at the door with his thumb- "I'll just to get someone..." He turned  
like a frightened deer and left the room, calling for someone named Rogers. Tony let his eyes drift shut, his unsteady heart beat beginning to match the throbbing in his brain. He could feel a migraine coming on fast.

It wasn't long before the door opened again and in stepped a tall, muscular blond man in jeans and a tired looking smaller blondish man also in jeans. Both of them had alert blue eyes however.

"Tony?" The taller blond man questioned quietly. Tony gazed at the man, trying to put a name to a face, but nothing was coming to him.

"That's what they call me," Tony snarked, fighting back a cough. "You wouldn't happen to know where my old man is, would you? Or perhaps why I'm in the hospital?" The tall blond man shared a look with the shorter man before creeping forward a few steps. Tony could feel his stomach twisting bitterly and sloshing with fear.

"Your mother and father had to attend an emergency meeting in...uh," The tall man grimaced as he obviously tried to think of some lie.

"Pakistan," The shorter man interjected. Tony's eyes darted between both men and he instantly knew they were lying. It was a sure sign someone was lying when they had to finish each others lies. He kept his mouth shut though. He could be arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. Something trippy was going on here and his mother and father always taught him to be quiet and passive if he was ever kidnapped. Sure, a hospital didn't seem like an underground bunker they talked about for a hideout location, but to each his own, Tony supposed.

"Yes, Pakistan. Your father asked us to watch you. I'm Steve Rogers and this is Clint Barton." The tall man -Steve- explained. Tony couldn't help his snort of disbelief.

"Steve Rogers? You mean the very dead Captain America that daddy-o never stopped talking about?" Tony was used to people lying to him, but this tool was doing a very shitty job. 'Steve' glanced over to Clint, a look of helplessness in his features. Clint stepped forward.

"I'm a SHIELD agent," He greeted. "Captain America has been off ice for years, but it's classified information. We just told your father when he was leaving for Pakistan. For now, he's just Steve Rogers." The agent explained. Tony stared at him skeptically. Tony knew that something was wrong here, but he couldn't let them onto his knowledge. He pretended to take the bait.

"I see...so you're my babysitters?" Tony asked, his eyes flickering between both men. He had his...concerns that he'd been kidnapped, but if he was why would he be in the hospital? Speaking of which..."Do you know why I'm in here?"

"Yes..." Steve began slowly. "A couple nights ago, when you were sleeping, you're heart stopped beating. Your parents got you here just in time for them to install an artificial heart. Just...look at your chest." Tony knew they were shitting him now. Completely. Just to humor them he lifted up the sheet he was covered with and peered underneath it.

The sight took his breath away. He was shirtless under the sheet, and there, in the center of his chest was an empty metal tunnel with wires coming out of it and disappeared out from under the sheet. Swollen veins and muscles decorated his chest in an intricate pattern. Well, that explained the chest pains.

"What?" Tony could feel cold hands grabbing at him, causing the hairs on the back of his neck. "What is this? Where are my mom and dad?" The situation was rapidly becoming scary, so much that tears pricked at his eyes, as he stared at the gap in his chest.

"It's okay, they're away right now," Steve soothed, stepping forward and dropping into the chair by Tony's bed. "They'll be back soon and that it keep you alive," -the blond pointed over the bed as a small battery, about the size of a phone. I knew -know- your father, and he trusts me with you, okay? I promise we won't hurt you."

"Why-why did this happen?"

"The doctor's think it's genetic," Clint stepped forward. "You had an infection in your chest, which is why your veins look so weird. But, tomorrow you can come back home."

"Mom and dad just left me?" Tony squeaked quietly, as if he didn't mean to say it aloud. Tony knew that his father didn't...care all that much for him, but he didn't think both of them would abandon him with these chest problems. Hurt that really shouldn't be there poured through him like floodgates opening. They just left him. They just left him with these strangers.

"Nah, kid, they're coming back just as soon as they can." Clint said with the first smile shared in the room. Steve nodded and allowed a smile of his own to leak onto his face.

"So, how are you feeling?" The blond asked. Tony looked down at the huge gap in his chest and swallowed thickly.

"I'm...tired." He said honestly. He was beat, but that was disregarding the fact that he was also scared out of his fucking mind, could barely breathe, his stomach was in a million and two knots and his head roared like it when you were underwater. But in all truthfulness, all Tony wanted to do was close his eyes and wake up from this nightmare.

"Alright, we can leave you to sleep for a bit and come back later." Steve said, still wearing that fake smile. Tony only nodded, still looking at the hole in his chest. Now that he thought about it, through the throb in his head he could make out the whine of a battery working.

He didn't see the two adults leave, but he looked over when he heard the door click shut. As soon as he got out of this bed -tomorrow- he was going to find a phone and call his father or mother. There was no way these people were who they said they were.

The hours until tomorrow drug painfully on, and it didn't help that Tony was as restless as could be. He got a solid three hours after Steve and Clint left, but after that his back cramped up and he wanted so badly to turn onto his side, but the couldn't. Not with the hole in his chest and the wire leading out of it.

They came back for him when the clock on the wall read 8:17 AM. Steve looked freshly showered, blond hair darkened from the shower and slicked back with a comb. Clint looked a little frazzled, as if he had just gotten up, and his dirty blond hair was crazily arranged atop his head.

"Ready, kid?" Clint asked as a female doctor in a long white coat came in. She was holding a clipboard and smiling warmly.

"Yeah," Tony said sheepishly. He was well aware of the dark bags bedecking his face and the stark contrast of his paper white skin against his dark hair, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

The doctor moved forward, jotted a few things down on the clipboard and sat in the chair next to his bed.

"See that?" She pointed over him at the small battery buzzing quietly on the table. "That is what is keeping you alive. It's very important not to disconnect any wires, or break the battery, or to crush it, or anything else like that. We have antibiotics we're going to give you too." The doctor smiled. "Are you ready to go with Mr. Barton and Mr. Rogers?" Tony gave little nods throughout the doctor's instructions.

The doctor stood up and moved around the bed, picking up the small electromagnet with the upmost care. "Can you sit up?" She asked. Tony used his hands and feet to pushed himself from his prone position into a sitting one. It didn't _hurt_exactly, but he could feel the pressure of the metal straining against his chest with his movements.

Once he was sitting, he heaved in shallow breaths, trying his hardest not to look down at his chest. He felt suddenly very self conscious now that the blanket had slipped down, pooling around his hips. "Alright," The doctor's unnaturally icy cold hand grasped his upper arm and supported him until his little, bare feet hit the ground. He was wearing only grey boxers that just brushed the top of his kneecap.

"Take this," The doctor said. Tony held out his hand and she pressed the small battery into it. The electromagnet felt cool against his palm, but he couldn't help but feel more secure with his life force in his hand. "Here," She walked over to a small cabinet and rummaged through it. She returned to Tony's side holding a big yellow shirt. "We don't have anything smaller. It won't hurt to have anything touch or on the wires, just don't break them or pull at them, okay?" Tony nodded and accepted the shirt wordlessly. He tugged it over his head carefully but quickly. He breathed out a sigh of relief at the feeling of being covered once more.

"Anything else we should know?" Steve asked. Tony shuffled awkwardly over to the two men, hand closing and opening anxiously around the electromagnet. Clint put his hand on Tony's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze, smiling down at the shaggy head of brown hair. Tony looked up under his brow at him and smiled too.

"Are you hungry, kid?" Clint asked as Steve shared a few, quiet words with the SHEILD doctor. Tony laughed a little and nodded. Now that he thought about it, he could feel hunger gnawing at his stomach.

"Lets go," Steve said after thanking the doctor. Clint steered Tony out of the room and through the hallway. His hand remained safely on the little billionaire's shoulder.

"We're headed back," Clint said as he turned on the car's blinker, jerking the wheel to the left. Tony peeked forward between the two seats, seeing a touch phone attached to car's speakers. A picture of an angry looking redheaded woman was the caller I.D. The name 'Tash.O' was above the photo. Clint seemed to find it humorous by the way he smirked at the phone, but honestly Tony didn't get it.

"Good. I'll tell Pepper. Banner's still asleep; you'll have to help me explain this to him." The redhead, 'Tash.O', said over the phone. The call cut before Clint could respond. Tony stifled his laughter as he returned his gaze to the city. Guess they flew him quite a ways to a special hospital.

"What do you want to tell Banner about this? We don't know if anything will...happen." Steve asked in a hushed whisper just loud enough for Tony to make out. The young child had no idea who this 'Banner' they kept talking about was, and what they were fussing over, but his curiosity was definitely flared up.

"We could tell him a witch waved her wand and brought him a brother." Clint deadpanned. Steve sighed and looked out the window, dropping his chin into his hand.

They pulled up to a tall building not long after the call with the redhead ended. Clint steered the car into what Tony presumed was the garage, albeit it was unlike any garage Tony had ever seen. There was what looked like lab equipment, and three expensive cars of different colors. Most looked to be under construction of some sort.

Clint put on the brakes and put the car in park. "Home sweet home!" He smiled as he grabbed him phone and stepped out. He backed up a few paces and raked his eyes over the exterior. "Pepper will never know this was driven before." Steve stepped out of the car and walked around to let Tony out. The child hopped down, the floor cold on his feet.

"Want me to pick you up?" Steve asked. He was diverting his eyes and his face was dusted pink, as if he was embarrassed to do such a thing. Tony wasn't sure why; everyone picked him up. And like he was going to miss a piggy back ride from Captain America.

"Yeah, I do." Tony smiled and stretched his arms up, wiggling his fingers at the tall man. He bent down and wrapped Tony into his arms. He struggled slightly, despite Tony's light weight. It was as if he'd never picked up a child before. Tony gripped his battery close to him in a tight fist as he clambered out of Steve's arms and onto his shoulders, wrapping his thighs around the man's neck and grabbing a fistful of his still damp blond hair.

"Say hi, JARVIS!" Clint said as he waved at the ceiling. They started towards the elevator set off in the corner.

"Greetings, Agent Barton, Captain Rogers, Master Stark." A British voice echoed. Tony startled, his hand tightening in Steve's hair as he jerked his eyes up to the ceiling. The disembodied voice seemed to be all around him, like an echo.

"What was that?" He asked in awe. Clint smirked over at the child sitting atop Steve's shoulders.

"That was an artificial intelligence named JARVIS. Someone told me once it stood for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System." Clint explained. Tony could hear the laughter in Clint's voice. He seemed to be an...exceptionally cheerful individual.

"Oh. I think I'm going to like JARVIS." Tony said as he grinned at the ceiling.

"I think you'll like him too." Clint said back.

"I do hope so, Sir." JARVIS added in quietly. Maybe, Tony thought as he chuckled, it wouldn't be so bad staying with these people. If not better than staying with his folks. If this is what kidnapping was like, Tony didn't see why everyone always freaked out about it.

They rode the elevator up for what seemed like hours. Tony couldn't remember ever being in an elevator that long, but then again he couldn't remember ever seeing a house with technology like this. And this was a house, Tony assumed, even if it seemed a hell of a lot more like an office building.

When they finally reached the floor they were greeted by two redheaded females. One had a splatter of freckles across her nose, her pale almost orange hair just brushing her shoulders. She was wearing black sweatpants and a tight white tank top with a black overcoat. Her eyes were inflamed, like she'd been crying and hadn't seen sleep for a while.

The other redhead was more composed. Her sanguine hair curled just around her ears, tickling the nape of her neck. She was wearing a stylish white blouse and black jeans, one eyebrow cocked at them.

At the sight of the trio, the more distraught redhead let out a little, involuntarily cry. She instantly pulled Tony off of Steve's shoulders and squeezed him to her chest so tightly Tony couldn't suck in a breath. He held out the hand holding the electromagnet to avoid it getting crushed.

"Oh thank god," The woman breath ruffled his hair as she placed a kiss on his forehead. Tony frowned and subtly pushed against her chest to distance himself. Sensing his discomfort and recomposing herself, lowered Tony to the ground. She huffed and brushed her awry bangs out of her eyes. Tony could see the glisten of tears in her green iris'.

"He's got a clean bill of health, more or less." Clint said. He and the other redhead locked eyes and moved off discreetly. Tony caught a glimpse of them whispering to each other in the corner.

"Bummer," The remaining woman laughed lightly. She bent down so she was eye level with Tony and held out her hand. "I'm Pepper Potts. I work for your father." She greeted. "I met you when you were very little, I don't image you remember."

"I don't." Tony said bluntly, but he made sure to keep his tone light enough. Pepper's mouth twitched and she pulled Tony into a brief hug before standing again.

"Over there is Natasha," Pepper said. Natasha looked over briefly at the sound of her name. Her green eyes dipped down to Tony's for the briefest second before flickering back to Clint.

"Clint called her on the way...he said her name was Tash.O." Tony mused aloud. Pepper let out a clipped laugh that sounded more like a breath of relief.

"Of course he did."

"Bruce?" Pepper's knuckles rapped lightly against the guest room door. Before Tony got back, they moved Bruce to the nearest guest room. It wouldn't do anyone good to have him wake up and see Tony before they had time to explain.

From outside the door, Pepper heard a faint yawn and shuffling of blankets. Clint and Natasha were both with Tony eating breakfast and Steve was with her.

Pepper pushed open the door and peeked her head inside. Bruce was groggily whipping at his eyes and blinking to clear them. His curly brown hair was ruffled, and his pajamas bunched up. Pepper and Steve slipped into the room and made their way to the bed. Steve remained standing at the end and Pepper eased herself down next to Bruce. The bed dipped slightly under her added weight.

"Good morning, Bruce," She smiled warmly, brushing a stray curly out of his brown eyes. The child smiled back at her and toyed with the blanket gripped in his hands, tugging it up under his chin.

"Where's Tony?" Bruce asked sleepily. Pepper felt her heart sink into her stomach as she glanced down at the floor. How would she break it to him? They'd grown so close...

"Well, honey, Tony had to go on an emergency business trip, and he won't be back for a while. But-but he wanted me to tell you that he cares about you very much, and that he'll watch Star Trek with you as soon as he gets back." Pepper explained carefully. Bruce's eyes had left hers halfway through the conversation, his fingers picking at the string on his blanket that had fallen from his chin. Pepper could practically see the disappointment radiating off of him.

"But his son, Anthony, is here," Pepper offered. "Tony Jr." Bruce looked up at her, his expression guarded.

"He-he has a son?"

"Yeah, he's your age. He was with his mom." Pepper confirmed. Bruce nodded slightly, continuing to pick at the string. Pepper glanced back at Steve who was chewing idly at his lip. "Do you want to come meet him? I think you two will get along." Pepper said, looking back at that bent curly head.

"Okay." Bruce whispered. Pepper smiled and patted his knee, helping the kid untangle from the blankets. He was still wearing the Hulk footie pajamas and Pepper couldn't help but ogle how cute he was. She could even see the amusement in Steve's eyes as he watched Bruce pad out in front of them.

They walked down the hall and into the kitchen, seeing Clint, Natasha, and Tony, carelessly swinging his feet, eating toast. Clint and Natasha spotted Bruce first and fell silent. Tony caught in quick enough, his hazel eyes dropping to Bruce who was sandwiched between Pepper and Steve's legs. Almost instantly, Bruce inched behind Pepper's legs, his hand whipping out and grabbing Pepper's sweatpant leg.

"Tony, this is Bruce Banner," Pepper said, looking from the deaged billionaire to the deaged scientist. "And Bruce, this is Tony Stark."


	11. To Those Born Without Chances

**Warnings: Swearing (I think that's all...)**

**A/n: Unbetaed and I own nothing. I wanted to say I appreciate all of you who have left a review, favorited, or followed and even just read. So, thanks 3 And also I have a special JARVIS twist coming up next chapter (I think...) that will explain a thing or two in this one. I'll credit theperson who helped me with JARVIS's chapter when it comes ;)**

They didn't like each other. It came as a shock to everyone; Coulson, Natasha, Pepper, and certainly Steve. It wasn't like they fought or anything, Bruce was way too shy to engage in that sort of thing, but they ignored each other and sat at opposite ends of the table during meal times. Pepper, for the life of her, didn't understand why they wouldn't click they did every other time they'd been forced together.

Maybe it was the fact that Bruce was so much quieter and reserved than Tony, and as a kid it didn't fly with him. Maybe it was the fact that Tony was constantly getting yelled at for breaking things and hiding in obscure locations and all of that made Bruce uncomfortable. Steve suggested some exercises that might strength their non existent bridge, but Pepper said she wasn't sure if that was the best idea. She didn't want to force Tony and Bruce to hang out with each other if they didn't want to.

As far as Tony went, he found Bruce...unapproachable and quite frankly, weird. He never said anything to anyone besides the adults, minus Phil, and this had Tony thinking he was some sort of retard. Secondly, he never asked for anything or really did much besides sitting around and sketching, just like Steve. Thirdly, he was a suck up. He never went against the adult's rules, or complained about eating his veggies or anything else that put frowns on their faces.

In the week since Tony met Bruce, he decided it was best to ignore him and snicker behind his back. Bruce didn't seem adverse to this, nor did he seem to approve of it, but then again he was so monotone all the time it was hard to tell how he felt about anything.

But the discomfort was a two way street. Bruce would regard Tony's antics from his place curled up on the couch. He broke things, colored on things, ripped things apart, _ate everything _, and after Steve or Pepper got done telling him not to do that, he turned around and did it again. It was as if he had no self preservation instinct.

Bruce could see the resemblance between Tony's father and him, but Tony Senior wasn't just hyper and loud and witty, but there was a sort of sense around him, like an aura that drew Bruce in. This Tony was all glamor and diva, like he wanted the spotlight on him at all times and actively tried to get it, while Tony Senior was already naturally in the limelight.

"I think we should go to the park," Pepper said out of the blue. It was a slow morning, nobody was even dressed, but the morning light was beginning to breakdown the haze in the sky. Weak streams were splashed across the floor through the open window.

"Yeah?" Clint asked as he chewed idly at a crispy piece of bacon. Tony bounced in his seat.

"Ice cream!" He chortled happily, smiling widely. Bruce's too big brown eyes slid over to the energetic child and he just hunkered down further in his chair. At the very least, Tony usually distracted the adults away from Bruce.

Clint reached over and clapped Tony on the shoulder. "At least his mind's in the right place." Pepper smiled at him across the table.

"And we can play tag, or frisbee, or something." She suggested. Tony grinned again, a big doggy grin. "What do you think, Bruce?" Pepper glanced over at the reserved child. He gave a little shrug as he nibbled on his juice straw. Tony shot a look over at Bruce and held back a snort.

Another shrug, another indifference. Tony had half a mind to suggest they leave him behind. Someone with so little personality (and obviously decreased intelligence) was never fun to hang out with. When Tony asked Pepper who Bruce was the night after he met him, she responded with a vague, poorly fabricated lie.

"Well, we can go for a bit and if you have fun we can stay, 'kay?" Pepper suggested. Tony looked back over at Bruce who didn't say anything.

"Can we get a dog?" Tony asked suddenly. "Dad hates dogs." Pepper rolled her green eyes back to Tony.

"No, Tony," She sighed, exasperated. "We cannot get a dog."

"Worth a try," Tony defended as he picked up his electromagnet and slid off the chair.

Pepper stood up too and followed him back to his bedroom, leaving Bruce with Clint and Natasha.

"Tony, you gotta take a bath." Pepper said as she shut the door behind her. In the week they had him, Tony had only bathed twice, and really it was just him rubbing himself down with a damp wash cloth and wetting his hair. Tony looked back at her and then the electromagnet in his hand.

"It'll short circuit." He protested. There was no way he was getting fully submerged in water so it could all rush into the gap in his chest and short circuit the wires.

"No it won't. Remember the covering Steve showed you? It just goes over the gap and the battery and it's waterproof." Pepper argued. Tony was stubborn enough as an adult, as a child he was fucking unmovable. Tony crossed his arms childishly and pouted.

"What if it isn't?"

"It _is _. Come here, we're taking a bath," Pepper reached over and grabbed Tony's arm hard enough to keep him from escaping but not so hard to bruise. Tony whined as she dragged him to the bathroom, his unrestrained arm pushing against her.

She pulled him into the bathroom and kicked the door shut, locking it behind her. Fortunately, the lock was too high for Tony to reach. She walked around the kid who had plopped himself down in the center of bathroom and rubbed at him arm and turned on the bath, adjusting it to the appropriate temperature.

She rummaged around in the cabinet above the sink and pulled out a plastic cap for Tony's chest and electromagnet. "Get undressed, Tony," She ordered as she stood above him with the covering. He frowned up at her.

"Well, that's weird." He continued to sit. Pepper bent down and pulled him to the feet.

"Get undressed, Tony!" She could practically feel the tears of anger pressing against her eyes. She couldn't do it. Tony grumbled as he complied, maneuvering out of his sleeping shirt and tossing it aside. He wiggled out of his sweatpants and kicked them aside too. He crossed his arms over his tiny chest and continued to pout.

"Here," Pepper said as she bent down and gathered the electromagnet from Tony's hand. She pooled the wires and battery around the channel in his chest and pressed the plastic cap over it until the end rested against his skin. She then reached around and pulled the two plastic buckles around Tony's back and fastened them together just below his shoulder blades. Tony squirmed and instantly went to paw at the uncomfortable plastic cup on his body. "Stop," Pepper said as she pulled his hands away from his body. She kissed each one of his knuckles and looked him in the eye.

"Stop," She repeated. Tony refused to meet her gaze.

"I did," He responded sulkily. Pepper straightened and gestured for him to get undressed completely. To give the kid some privacy, she turned so she faced the wall. She didn't turn back around until she heard the splash of Tony getting into the tub. The water was filled nearly to his pectorals. She turned off the water.

"See? Not so bad, is it?" She smiled as she gathered some water into her hand and dumped it atop his head. The water rolled down his forehead and dripped off the tip of his nose. It dripped onto the plastic covering with a little splash, harmlessly rolling off of it.

"Still sucks," He responded as he grudgingly allowed Pepper to scrub her fingers through his greasy hair and nape. She stretched across the tub to get the shampoo when the front of her shirt was suddenly very, very wet. Astonished, she sat back on her heels with the shampoo gripped in her hand. She glanced down at her front. Her white sleeping shirt was now more of a dark grey over her stomach and chest, clinging to her bones. Tony grinned devilishly from the tub. Pepper's jaw clicked as she studied him and shook her head.

"Unacceptable, Tony. Unacceptable."

"Baths are unacceptable," He retorted sharply. Pepper shook her head again and popped open the cap to the shampoo, pouring some onto the palm of her hand. She scooted closer to the bath and a little more roughly than necessary pulled and rubbed at his hair with her soapy palms. Tony fidgeted under her hands, ducking his head in a half assed attempt to get away. Fortunately, he didn't seen too keen on falling face first into the tub and risking dislodging the covering over his chest.

After soaping up his hair, Pepper reached for the soap and smeared it all over his back, leaving behind a faint white residue. She brought the soap all the way down to the small of his back that was hiding under the water, around the covering, over his shoulders and all the way down his arms to his hands. She dipped her hand under the watered and grasped his foot, scrubbing the soap over the tiny foot vigorously.

While Pepper ran the soap over his body and poured water over his head and squirted conditioner onto his head just crossed his arms and bore it.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, like were done. Pepper held up the towel from Tony to step into. She rubbed the cloth all over his body before ruffling his damp hair with in.

"We're gonna keep the cup on until you dry completely," Pepper decided as she wrapped the towel around Tony like a dress. They both padded out of the bathroom and Pepper left Tony for him to get dressed. She had to go get herself ready anyhow.

When Pepper finished getting ready she came out to see Clint teaching Tony how to do a first person shooter game and Steve and Bruce quietly drawing on the floor. Natasha was nowhere in sight. Tony was sitting in the couch dressed in dark wash jeans, a white shirt with a black Stark Industries logo across it, and white socks. His hair was still slightly damp and swept to the side with a comb. Clint had gotten dressed and was wearing a tight purple shirt that accented his muscular arms, his hair was gelled, and he had boots and dark jeans on. Steve was dressed in a casual blue t-shirt with light blue jeans and Bruce, spread out on his stomach beside him, wore a red science shirt and black jeans.

Pepper couldn't help but feel out of place in her jean shorts and white blouse, but ah well.

"You guys ready?" She asked with as much enthusiasm that she could muster. Clint stretched and shook his head.

"I gotta go to SHIELD. Catch up with Tasha." He yawned.

"Steve?" Pepper asked with a silent beg. She didn't think she could handle Tony on her own. The blond nodded and gathered his feet underneath him.

"Yeah, I'm coming." He stood up and offered his hand to Bruce. The deaged scientist tentatively took it, a shy smile on his face.

"Uh-huh. You promised ice cream." Tony reminded as he chewed on his lip, his fingers rapidly pressing a button on the X-Box controller.

"I did," Pepper nodded. "And I'm driving the Camaro."

"Get your ass back here!" Pepper's scream caused perfectly respectable people to shot strange looks her way. She was running across the park in bare feet after Tony, who was surprisingly fast for his short legs. Little fuck had taken her phone and was doing god knows what with it. Bruce and Steve were jogging behind her.

Tony's little feet flew across the grass as he ran, weaving around people too slow to move out of his way. He could feel his heart rapidly beating against the channel in his chest, but it was either stand a little discomfort or get caught by a now thoroughly irate Pepper.

He rounded a corner and dashed in front of a horse and carriage ride. The large animal shook its head, but otherwise didn't acknowledge the child. The carriage driver watched with an irritated expression as the child ran off, followed by a redheaded woman.

Tony threw a glanced back over his shoulder but lost sight of Pepper through the crowd. He ducked behind a large man and threw himself behind a thick bush. Panting, he gathered his knees to his chest and gripped the phone in one hand and the electromagnet in the other.

He heard Pepper's shout over the blood roaring in his ears and smiled smugly. She deserved it, for giving him a bath and all.

He sat there for about ten minutes, once Pepper's voice had faded when he heard a rustling beside him. He glanced over, expecting to see Steve or Pepper, but the face that stared back at him was one with too big brown eyes and a head of curly hair.

Tony's hand whipped out and he grabbed the front of Bruce's shirt, dragging him behind the bush. "Shh." Tony demanded, lifting a finger to his lips. "Where are they?" Bruce stared at Tony with wide eyes before gently reaching up and prying the billionaire's fingers off of his shirt. The kid had been driving the adults crazy with worry for the past ten minutes.

"Out there," Bruce nodded vaguely past the bush with his head. "Pepper says were gonna get ice cream." Tony's ears perked up but only briefly.

"Don't you dare tell, snitch." Tony warned as he peered around the bush.

"I-" Bruce wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to upset Tony, but lying to the adults would probably be much worse. Although, was it lying if he simply didn't say anything? Tony looked at him.

"Are you slow?" Tony asked.

"Slow? I'm not very fast..." Bruce responded awkwardly. He wasn't used to interactions with other children, especially not ones like Tony.

"I didn't mean how fast you could run. Never mind. Just don't tell 'kay?" Tony said, his voice a little softer.

"Oh," Bruce said, sidestepping Tony's request once more. Honestly, he'd rather just stay out of it. It wasn't any of his business how Tony wanted to psych out the adults. They sat in an awkward silence for a while before Tony spoke again.

"Lets go," He said, straightening and peering over the top of the bush. He didn't see Pepper or Steve anywhere. Bruce stood up too and followed Tony's lead. The two children jogged across the grass towards a fountain. People awed at the marble design.

Water spouted into the air, sending droplets onto people standing too close. Water pooled down into the bottom, sliding down rivets in the fountain. Tony and Bruce weaved their way through the crowd to stand at the foot of the fountain. Tony peered over the edge, seeing the distorted image of dull copper pennies sitting at the bottom of the fountain.

"Would you like a penny?" A scratchy voice said from behind them. Bruce spun around on his heel, heart beating violently against his ribcage. Tony turned around much smoother, but his eyes were still wary. "Would you like a penny?" The man asked again. He was elderly, leaning on a cane and mouth chewing at his toothless gums. His head was mostly bald besides a few white wisps. His dull blue eyes sagged and seemed clouded over, as if he was blind.

"Uh..." Bruce hummed. His mother always told him not to talk to strangers and certainly never to accept anything from them. Coincidentally, Tony's own mother told him the same thing. The only difference between them was that Tony didn't listen to his mother.

"Yes, Mister Ninety-Nine!" Tony said jovially. The man's gnarled hand reached back into his pocket and he pulled out two glistening pennies. He handed one to Tony and one to Bruce. Then, he pointed past them to the fountain.

"Make one wish," He instructed. "Make one wish, kids, and make it count." Bruce's eyes fell to the overly shiny penny. The man turned and hobbled away, can hitting quietly against the ground. Tony turned the penny over in his fingers and turned towards the fountain.

"I wish people would stop handing me things," Tony declared loudly as he flicked the penny into the fountain, the coin floating to the bottom. Bruce leaned over the marble edge of the fountain. He made a silent wish as he plopped his penny in alongside Tony's. He watched it float through the bottom through the thin, hyaline water.

After looking at the pennies images warp to new shapes beneath the water, the two four years olds moved off. No one paid them any mind, so they strolled along sharing few words.

Meanwhile Steve and Pepper were frantically tearing through the park. They asked everyone they came across if they'd seen two four year olds, but most people just waved them off or grunted some unintelligible in response. It must have been a half hour before they fell into the nearest bench in an attempt to gather their train of thought.

"Okay, are they together?" Pepper asked, running her fingers through her tangled hair.

"It seems like they must be..." Steve mused. They hadn't got along though and it definitely wasn't like Bruce to just wander off, even with someone else.

"Oh my god, Steve, what if-what if someone took them," Pepper's hand slowly went up to cover her mouth as she tried to fight through her panic. It was just like Tony to go missing right when she got him back. "They're kids and we're in the middle of New York. Oh my god, what if they told someone who they were. Oh my god..." Pepper sat up straighter. Oh no. Steve placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"I'm sure nothing like that happened, okay? There are too many people, it's just too obvious. They're probably just hiding out somewhere." He reassured himself and Pepper. It wasn't like they could call in for help, Fury's warning still rang loudly in Steve's head and it had only been a half hour. They were kids; they were probably just playing an elaborate game of hide and seek. Pepper nodded and breathed in deeply.

"Okay, I'm sure you're right. I'm sure they're fine." Pepper stood up and smoothed down the front of her blouse and they continued to scope out the park, wandering past a busy marble fountain. They stopped to ask people if they'd seem them when someone cleared their throat behind them. Pepper and Steve turned around to see an old man with a cane, smiling at them.

"I saw you're sons," The old man began. "I didn't realize they had wandered away from their parents or else I would've kept them here and gone to find you." Pepper and Steve exchanged a look with each other.

"Thank you, Sir. Could you tell us where they went?" Pepper asked, relief seeping into her tone. Surely if this man had seen them, and remembered seeing them they couldn't be too far.

"Uh, I believe they went that way, Ma'am. Bright looking young lads..." The old man smiled as he gestured to a path leading away from the fountain. "Children, always causing an uproar. Back in my day we would've been strapped for behaving like that. Maybe it was better than way," The man let out a wheezy laugh and Pepper grounded out a chuckle.

"Yes, well, they're a handful. Thank you so much. We just...gotta go get them," Pepper grabbed Steve's arm and dragged him behind her. He stumble to catch up. They set a brisk pace, looking behind every statue, tree, and god damn bicycle rack for the missing Avengers.

"At least they're together." Steve said as he finished checking behind a trash can. Pepper sighed and reluctantly agreed. If push came to shove, they were both genius' and would probably be better equipped to handle an emergency than two grown adults.

"At least," Pepper responded dryly. This part of the park was quieter and more dense with trees and grass than walkways and statues. The breeze was blowing through the treetops, creating a low whistle, and the swish if grass filled in the mostly yawning silence. The only other sound that could be heard was the faint, distant noise of cars on busy city streets.

There was, of course, the occasional person snapping a picture of a particularly interesting yellow flower, to eating lunch under the shade of a tree, but it felt more like a suburban park rather than the Central Park.

Naturally Pepper didn't distrust people, or locations, or hell even times of the day, but finally she was understanding why parents always freaked out when they couldn't find their kid, even in broad daylight with plenty of people around. And this scared her. She wasn't Tony's mother, she was his girlfriend (which was now admittedly slightly awkward for her to think about) and she shouldn't have to feel like this. Like these were her two troublesome sons making her hair gray much too early.

Tony and Bruce wandered amongst the trees where there were very few people. The shade hid them from the brilliant rays of the sun and spared their milky skin of a sunburn. After they tired of walking, they found a nice place under a weeping willow to sit down and pick at the grass.

Tony sat Pepper's phone aside (he put it on silence after getting a bunch if calls from Steve) and sat his electromagnet next to it. Bruce watched him delicately rearrange the wires under his shirt before speaking.

"What-what happened?" Bruce asked, gesturing vaguely at the other kid's chest. Tony looked down and shrugged.

"The doctors said my heart failed or something. I'm not really sure how this," -Tony nodded at the electromagnet- "is keeping me alive, but you know." He shrugged.

"Yeah," Bruce replied monotonously. "Do you-did your father talk about me?" He asked shyly. Tony eyed him with carefully masked suspicion.

"I can't say he did. Why?" Tony was never really around his father anyhow, so if he did mention some kid named Bruce, he probably wouldn't know it.

"Oh. Okay. I was just...wondering." Bruce signed and pick at a strand of grass he held between his fingers.

"You know, you're not as lame as I thought you were." Tony mused with a smile. Bruce ducked his head in embarrassment, but didn't suffocate the smile like he normally did.

"And you're not as annoying as I thought you were." Bruce said daringly. He peeked up from under his brow to see Tony's reaction. The other kid just had a small smile on his face.

"Do you think they're looking for us?"

"Probably," Bruce hesitated before asking his next question. "Do you think they're lying to us?" Tony gazed at him before nodding vigorously.

"No doubt about it, my friend. I can tell you that Captain America is not alive-"

"I agree."

"-and if someone like Pepper worked for my father I would've known about it. Not to mention the 'heart failure' I had over night. My dad always taught me to be prepared for things like this, when he talked to me at all."

"Do you think the-that battery thing is a tracking device? Maybe hooked up to her phone? And maybe it operates from your heart?" Bruce asked as he crawled forward to look at the battery.

"I wouldn't doubt it," -Tony snapped his fingers as he allowed Bruce to pick up and roll the electromagnet in his hands- "that's why she got so mad when I ran off with the phone." They sat in silence after that, both of them gathering evidence. It was a while before they decided to move, yawns escaping their throats and bones cracking as they did so. Tony led the way out of the little forest until they once again came across clean cut grass, concrete pathways, and people.

"Hey," A man with cropped short hair elbowed a man with a shaved glossy head beside him. The bald man looked over, scowling.

"What is it, Lewis?" He snapped tiredly. The short haired man, Lewis, pointed two small kids wandering across the park, chatting with each other.

"See them? They don't got any parents." This caused the bald man to sit up straight from the bench he was hunched back against.

"Ah yeah, I guess they don't. Think we could make a pretty penny off of em'?" The bald man asked, his voice piqued with interest. Lewis nodded.

"Two of em', and they're young. Look pretty well dressed too-hey," Lew is started, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the two children. "Is that a phone they got?"

"Everyone has phones nowadays, Lew. Don't mean they're rich."

"They look 'bout five, Samson." Lewis pointed out, his peevish black eyes following the kids across the park.

"True, oh hey man, is that Steve Rogers?" Samson jabbed his finger at a bulky blond man rushing towards the kids followed by a woman with red hair. Lewis whistled.

"Damn, I think that's Captain Asshole himself. What on Earth does he want with sum' kids?" Samson punched Lewis in the shoulder.

"Moron. He probably knows em' or something. Think they're the redhead's?"

"Probably, but if Captain A is going after em', they must be worth more than a pretty penny."

"An arm and a leg, perhaps?" Samson suggested with a dark chuckle. He stood up, old shoes falling apart with every step he took. "Maybe I'll get those fancy sneakers from Captain A when he comes to pay the ransom."

"Maybe they'll give us some of dem fancy ass cars too," Lewis said gleefully. He had enough of seeing these assholes running around New York likes they owned the place, in their pressed suits and fake white smiles. What about people like him and Samson? The ones that weren't genius' or enhanced with some serum or trained by SHIELD? They were tossed out in the gutter like rats, and frankly Lewis just didn't think it was all that fair.

"Well c'mon then," Samson said as he stood up, grabbing his backpack. Discreetly he and Lewis made their way towards the kids that were being headed by Cap and the woman. Once they were at a close, but safe distance, they slowed, trying not to make it too obvious that they were watching the foursome. With so many people around, it wasn't hard.

"You said we'd get ice cream!" The kid with the phone whined. The redhead looked down at him.

"That was before you ran off and scared us half to death." She came back coolly. Captain America nodded his silent agreement.

"You're not my mom!" The same kid whined louder. The redhead hushed him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know, but I'm your guardian right now and you'll do as I say."

"But you _said _." The kid repined. The female rolled her eyes and said something in a murmur so Lewis and Samson didn't hear her. But when she got done speaking, the complaining kid threw his arms in the air and let out bark of triumph. He ran over and said something loudly -but too quickly for outside ears to catch- to the other kid. Lewis saw the barest glimmer of a smile on the other kid's face before the complainer was dragging him to the nearest bench to sit down. The two adults made there way over to what Lewis presumed what an ice cream stand.

"This is our chance," Sansom said in a rush. The two of them moved around the people to catch a glimpse of the two kids. They were playing some sort of hand game on the bench, perfectly oblivious to the two men.

"Our little money bags. Five star hotels and fine dining here we come."


End file.
